Reading Without Seeing
One final musing from my Summerfest experience. We typically take one of the festival shuttles into Milwaukee’s Maer Festival Park. Leaving our vehicle at the Ryan Park and Ride lot saves the trouble of dealing with city traffic, as well as finding and paying for parking. One pays the bus driver $7 for the trip in and the return, which is usually quite late, close to midnight. It is a good deal.
This time around according to years of habit we parked in the Ryan lot, walked to the pick up spot and waited. We noticed a orange sign prominently posted, which I read. We conversed with friends, while we waited and waited. After about 20 minutes I knew something was off kilter. I had another look at the orange sign. I read it more carefully this time. The sign said that the bus would not come. If we wanted to ride the shuttle we’d have to go to the Congress Parkway pickup. And we were not the only ones waiting there in vain. Of course we all left upon realizing that past practice was irrelevant to the present.
This is a amusing instance of reading without seeing.
A more sobering instance has to do with the unsustainable institutional arrangements that we have supported in this State of Illinois, and indeed, in this nation as a whole. Political parties no longer just disagree, and then strike a compromise in order to address a needed change. They wage war, typically with a burnt earth tactic, a winner-take-all, no compromise tactic to achieve power. We are electing Cretans to office, a starry-eyed-Messiah-strongman.
We can read the sign. But can we see what it means? The bus is not going to come. We are not going to be picked up, no matter how long we wait, and wait. Like waiting for Godot.
One thought on “Reading Without Seeing”
Wonderfully put. I will leave you with an appropriate response. Many years ago I visited the men’s restroom at the UC Theatre in Berkeley, CA. On the wall I noticed a piece of graffiti that I doubt I would have seen almost anywhere else and to this day can visualize the writing. It read, simply:
“Back in 5 minutes – Godot”
I’m still waiting.