12/22/2003: "Happy Winter Solstice"
Music: Fox NewsMood: Signs of the apocalypse Signs of the apocalypse Signs of the apocalypse
Oh, mama, can this really be the end?
It seems this is a good time to be hunkered down in Iowa, though maybe we’re not safe even here. The terror alert is up. There are extra police on the streets in New York and Washington. Patrols have been stepped up on the Golden Gate Bridge. Flights are being restricted over downtown Chicago. Terrorist paranoia is infecting people headed for football bowl games. At this very moment, the announcer on Fox News is babbling about worry that terrorists will hijack gasoline trucks and crashing them into innocents.
The world has gone mad. We don’t need horror writers scare us out of our wits. Pick up the newspaper or turn on the television.
The truly amazing thing is to realize that today, at the edge of 2004, religious fanaticism has us all wondering where the slaughter will be next. I’m researching a vampire trilogy set in the Dark Ages, but I don’t need to look very hard to find fresh material.
What the hell is wrong with the human race?
* * *
Today is the winter solstice. A day of respite, the astrologers say.
“Change is in the air, but within this movement we can create a day of quiet rest.”
I plan to be home this week and the balance of the next. I shall try to make good use of this opportunity to take stock of my “life and set new priorities.” Mercury is aligning opposite Saturn, promising “a double whammy of responsibility and commitment.”
The shortest day of the year. Today an end; tomorrow a beginning. The great wheel of being begins another revolution.
It’s like Jerry Garcia sang: “If the thunder don’t get you, the lightning will.”
Selah.
