Soon it will be mid-December.  Its raining outside, Saturday.  Tom Petty’s Runnin’ Down A Dream played on the radio, I drove on the rain slicked road before light this morning.

An extended email exchange with an old friend occupied my thoughts.  He is a die-hard conservative.  I, on the other hand, am on the Left.  He suggested that I am a member of the woke crowd.  I object to the term woke, because of the ambiguity and the negative connotation of what it means.  It seems to me that one is designated “woke” when someone of a socially conservative point of view regards them as a potential enemy.  That alarms me.

A great deal alarms me lately.  Not that I am in a position to influence the outcomes of emerging events.  Is anyone able to nudge an event toward a less destructive, more humane state? I hesitate to use the word conclusion, because nothing concludes.  There is only transformation, a morphing into advancement or to retrograde, a continued dying.

Am I seduced by the illusion that spending more on education will in the long run enable more of us to make better choices?  Am I missing something to think that society as a whole benefits from some support of the poor from the public purse?  My old friend is probably convinced that the opposite holds true.  That is we are already spending too much on public education.  And that those in poverty, the powerless are not helped by being “on the dole,” and that we’d all benefit by terminating such support.  Necessity motivates productivity.  Isn’t that a universal principle?

Getting back to the Tom Petty tune.  The lyric suggests that the pursuit of a dream is invigorating.  Petty references Del Shannon’s 1963 hit song Runaway .  The early 1960’s were a time of optimism in our country.  There was a zeitgeist of growth, a feeling that the future belonged to us, that our greatest nemesis “Communism” would be defeated, etc.  I was a kid then and I remember.  Never mind that Black citizens never had much of a voice, didn’t matter.  Women were expected to remain in the kitchen.  Moral standards were thought to be divinely inspired, not a social improvisation.

I wonder if the worst outcome is actual achievement of a dream, that a dog is happiest when chasing the bus.  What inevitably happens if the dog catches the bus?  Why it is dragged along behind, unwilling to let go, until…

Now, America is stymied to continue financial support for Ukraine, a country fighting for survival, in need of more armaments to resist the juggernaut of the Russian army bent on extermination.  Republican members of congress stand in the way.  But wait, here is another side of this coin.  Our check book continues to be open without condition to fund the Israeli-Netanyahu assault on Hamas that promises the continued slaughter of thousands of civilians, wiping Gaza clean of institutions, of physical infrastructure.

For my friend and I, the pedal is down, and with everyone else in America: pickin’ up whatever’s mine.  The the rain was unstoppable It was always cold, no sunshine…

I love this video.  Rest in peace, Tom Petty (October 20, 1950-October 2, 2017)

Runnin’ Down A Dream

By Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin’
Trees went by, me and Del were singin’
Little runaway
I was flyin’

Yeah, runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

I felt so good, like anything was possible
Hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes
The last three days the rain was unstoppable
It was always cold, no sunshine

Yeah, runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

I rolled on, the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
There’s something good waitin’ down this road
I’m pickin’ up whatever’s mine

I’m runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream
Yeah, I’m runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
I’m runnin’ down a dream