Recently I considered the books piled upon my desk.  I am fortunate to be able to purchase whatever I am inclined to read.  I am happy in a strange way, — happy like a soldier departing on a mission, grasping a rifle with clip of full metal-jacket rounds, and plenty of spare ammo. 

I know that I will not read all of these at once, but I am well into several of these volumes and I plan to finish them all.  You may ask, “what is source of my motivation?  What is the point to reading this diverse collection of material?”  Put simply, it is clear to me that our comfortable, well appointed middle-class way of life which I and others have associated with America, is coming to a rapid end.  Climate warming, severe weather events, violence in our streets, severe economic disparity, and inequality before the law for citizens of color, — all point to the end of what we know.  Observed conditions also point to the beginning of something new, a way of life to be discovered, and made as humane as possible, for as many as possible. 

Therefore I read.  I read in order to gain a new vocabulary, and a new grammar that is apt for the conditions that are developing; new says to live, love and think.  Survival demands that we dialog together and learn how to aid one another, how to recognize basic needs for food, shelter, education, physical care, and emotional care.  It seems to me that this is our mission, and now is the time to prepare.

We must learn together how to speak differently.  Our old way of speaking defined by liberal vs conservative vocabulary, progressive or right-wing, ceases to be helpful as both parties in their power struggle are impotent to make a difference when it matters.  We must learn how to live more simply, to understand ourselves better so that we can find satisfaction in beauty, increase our practice of kindness, to become more open and less defensive toward one another.

Will the books help?  I think that they will.  Here is a list of titles and authors.  If you’d like to share, I am interested to know what you are reading…

This Incredible Need to Believe by Julia Kristeva
Homie, Poems by Danez Smith
The Teacup & The Skullcup, Where Zen and Tantra Meet by Chogyam Trungpa
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
The Communism of Love, An Inquiry into the Poverty of Exchange Value by Richard Gilman-Opalsky
30-Second Photography, Styles & Techniques explained in half a minute editor Brian Dilg

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How about the tune?  Without a doubt this is the best aspect of any post.  There is no comparison between my ephemeral musings and the durable truth of the poet-lyricist and the tune-smith.  The right tune for today is All Along the Watchtower written by Bob Dylan and covered here in the spirit of Jimi Hendrix by The Classic Rock Show.

All Along The Watchtower

By The Classic Rock Show

“There must be some kind of way out of here”
Said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion
I can’t get no relief

Businessmen, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None will level on the line
Nobody of it is worth
Hey!”

“No reason to get excited”
The thief, he kindly spoke
“There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke

But you and I, we’ve been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour’s getting late
Hey!”

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants too

Outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl, hey

All along the watchtower
All along the watchtower

lyrics written by Bob Dylan

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The backstory of this song:

All Along the Watchtower” is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song initially appeared on his 1967 album, John Wesley Harding, and it has been included on most of Dylan’s subsequent greatest hits compilations. Since the late 1970s, he has performed it in concert more than any of his other songs.

“All Along the Watchtower” is strongly identified with the interpretation Jimi Hendrix recorded for the album Electric Ladyland with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Hendrix version, released six months after Dylan’s original recording, became a Top 20 single in 1968, received a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 2001, and was ranked 47th in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.

Several reviewers have pointed out that the lyrics in “All Along the Watchtower” echo lines in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 21, verses 5–9:

Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise ye princes, and prepare the shield./For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth./And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed./…And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

Andy Gill said “In Dylan’s version of the song, it’s the barrenness of the scenario which grips, the high haunting harmonica and simple forward motion of the riff carrying understated implications of cataclysm; as subsequently recorded by Jimi Hendrix … that cataclysm is rendered scarily palpable through the dervish whirls of guitar.” — wikipedia