Yesterday we reached Charlottesville, Virginia.

We enjoyed the mountains of West Virginia.  On I64 while crossing the bridge spanning a river I glimpsed piles of coal to be loaded into waiting barges.  How much more coal are we going to burn in order to generate electricity, while the planet gathers heat from the co2 emissions?  Yet how are West Virginians going to live if coal is no longer a resource which they can sell?  Another aspect of the dilemma which we all face, whether we want to or not.  To view another person as “the enemy” is not so easy when you think about it.

Something else caught my eye on the roadside while passing Beckley West Virginia.  This signboard was jarring in its accusation, its shameless play upon human vulnerability, and the offer of another “snake-oil” remedy which leaves its recipients in a worse state than before receiving “treatment.”  There are many things which I am inclined to write about this advertisement.  Is it not high time to restrain myself, to forego my desire (lust) to attack religious fundamentalism?  Is not remedy for the siren song of lust, nothing less than developing and another habit of mind and practice?  I know that is not a sliver bullet, a fast acting remedy, — but it works.

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Desire, to be dragged behind a runaway compulsion to have or to experience something, or someone which one feels that one cannot live without…  Overweening desire is something that everyone, no matter the socio-economic class is subject to.

Here is a tune that we can hold onto.  Desire by U2.

Desire

By U2

(Yeah)

Lover, I’m on the street
Gonna go where the bright lights
And the big city meet
With a red guitar…on fire
Desire

She’s a candle burning in my room
Yeah I’m like the needle, needle and spoon
Over the counter with a shotgun
Pretty soon everybody got one
And the fever when I’m beside her
Desire, desire…

And the fever…getting higher
Desire, desire…burning, burning

She’s the dollars
She’s my protection
Yeah she’s a promise
In the year of election
Oh sister, I can’t let you go
Like a preacher stealing hearts
At a traveling show
For love or money money money
money money money money money
money money money
And the fever, getting higher
Desire, desire, desire, desire
Desire, desire

Writer(s): Adam Clayton, Dave Evans, Paul Hewson, Larry Mullen