Interlude
Where to this morning? I intended to compose additional thoughts on the Two Americas theme. The subject is depressing, like touring a social wasteland. I will delay another dive into that pool until tomorrow.
In the meanwhile this fine tune comes as an antidote to the innervation of the post-industrial capitalism that besets us all.
Is it not for others that we live, even for those with whom we have a occasional, single purpose, relationship? I show up most mornings at this Starbucks in order to read a while and write. The baristas behind the counter, employees of Starbucks are present to serve the beverages and treats in exchange for their pay and benefits. I the customer offer payment for a hot cup of coffee and a comfortable space by the window for an hour or so, while the room hums with conversation, the coming and going of patrons.
I imagine myself a 21st century Chaucer lingering for a spell at a roadside Inn…… My contact with the barista is brief. And that with the rest of the customers, is only at a distance. My point: human contact, existential, palpable, primal; sociability as ancient as humanity in a great room with the Starbucks logo hanging in the window, is my lifeline to being-in-my-right-mind, that my life is worthwhile, that I am oriented and can go on.
To raise the ante some, I must l mention the tie that I have to my wife and best friend, and the link to immediate family members, their spouses, and grandchildren, — all serve as anchors for my sanity. This is what I hold on to, and what holds on to me, in a world of abrasive neo-liberal Capitalism that will “strip the bones from one’s back” to use a Springsteen lyric metaphor.
I offer for your refreshment a rollicking tune from The Proclaimers. The lyric and the melody point to the human rhythm of our life together. We absolutely need one another. It is for one another that we work, that what we do and make, has exchange value.
More tomorrow on Two Americas.
