Don't look back

The great need to be tied to time–to the degree of both praying not to be so dependent on it and not knowing what to do without it–is perplexing, becoming another question I feel impelled to ask knowing it has no answer.

I also ask, 'are you a libertarian' of people almost the moment I first meet them, just to get the question out of the way. It's my way of frisking them, to make sure no loaded weapons are on their person, while knowledging their legal right to possess the firearm of their choice.

I've become suspicious, make that disdainful, of people who hold high positions in broadcast journalism and who regularly use the phrase, 'clearly', in the course of their conversation, as if to make it seem they are suddenly telling the truth and that you are lucky to hear it. Pundits on CNN and Fox News are regularly guilty, as are the anchor people who are on-screen ostensibly to present the news, not to editorialize or to pretend that by presenting the news they are telling us the truth.

I also note, watching the news during the political season, that we've entered the age of the smart blonde, and expect a torrent of smart blonde jokes to soon flood the airwaves.

I think a lot about NoamChomsky, saying his name as one word, and about Bob Dylan, whose real name is Zimmerman, reading Dylan's work now as a long testament to guilt and shame. Think about the phrase, 'don't look back'; what else could it mean other than the past is painful and the present is all you have?