The day dawns January the first, the year 2020.  I wish that it were possible to start afresh, like every new born, with a new, un-worn body, and a voracious mind eager to absorb experience, to make sense of a world, forthwith.  That is not the way of things with the new year.  The New Year stands to be a continuation of the old, the un-negotiated, loose ends of yesterdays conflicts.  The old lies, distortions which we love, are still to be supported, etc.

A friend told me in a email of yesterday, that my cynicism seems to be getting the best of me, that I ought to be “open.”  I think that openness has brought me to this place of mind and heart.  I am open to the ideal of life that we Americans thoroughly believe in, and I do not like what I see.  Therefore I am cynical that living conditions are going to improve for a lot of people.  Most of them live in other places, places that we’d call “developing.”

Yet, there is reason enough to persevere, to resist the blanket of ignorance, and the double-talk that comes reflexively to individuals who represent institutions with power, influence.

Why provoke yourself?
     For challenge
     growth
     remaining vital
     continuing to ask stupid questions.

—- Anonymous

For this New Year of 2020 I toast all of those that continue to ask stupid questions, a circle of friends (you know who you are), the New York Times, the Washington Post, all those who choose not to take the path of least resistance, which becomes the gutter of utter complacency.

Finally I leave you with a tune that will lift your spirits.  I recognize that the meaning is about drug dealing.  Aside from the literal meaning of the lyric, the tune has a performative function.  It will show that wildness of life, that force that refuses to be captured by any ideology, religious identity, or father-figure tyrant.

The video shows a younger version of the Stones.  Was there not once a younger version of you and I?  The Stones are still rolling.

Words follow the youtube video.

Sweet Virginia

By The Rolling Stones

Wadin’ through the waste stormy winter,
And there’s not a friend to help you through.
Tryin’ to stop the waves behind your eyeballs,
Drop your reds, drop your greens and blues.
Thank you for your wine, California,
Thank you for your sweet and bitter fruits.
Yes I got the desert in my toenail
And I hid the speed inside my shoe.

I want you to come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
I want you come on, honey child, I beg of you.
I want you come on, come on down, you got it in you.
(honey child)

Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes.
But Come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
Come on, honey child, I beg of you.
Come on, come on down, you got it in you.
(honey child)

Got to scrape that shit right off you shoes.
But Come on, come on down Sweet Virginia,
Come on, honey child, I beg of you.
Come on, come on down, you got it in you.
(honey child)

Got to scrape that shit right off you shoes.