DO YOU HEAR IT?

 Can you hear it? Do you want to hear it or is your preference selective deafness? The world is creaking, with obsolescence or overuse or self destructive behavior, but do we hear it? Or do most of us deny reality, deny the ever growing truth of the worries for self implosion of this planet, of life as we know it, as we hope for, as we go right along basing decisions on assumptions of a reality that will not manifest itself?

Look at how life has already changed. Once flying was pretty much assured. You made a reservation, got there on time, sat down, slept, read, ate, whatever made you comfortable, then deplaned at destination. Today, direct flights are dinosaurs. One has to fly hither and thither before reaching a "final destination". That is, unless you get dumped somewhere in the middle of the night to fend for oneself in the echoing emptiness of a deserted concourse, to figure things out for yourself.

One has to now fly defensively, as one is never quite sure if luggage will show up. Definitely one of the worst moments in life is watching that luggage sail round and round but yours is nowhere to be found. Oh, but wait, there is the vaunted tracking system. Aha! Your luggage was placed on the wrong flight! What happened to the tracking? Did it not read the error? And what about the clothes in there for the next day wedding? Oops! Nary an apology in sight! No more cheery ads for flying. Now people stomp through the airport, stand in lines, reveal the faces behind the masks, and pray they get there within a reasonable time. Two hours delay? Piece of cake!. Truly, what have we wrought with our airlines?

The echoes of the theme of Twilight Zone pick up in decibels. We read that Musk wants to build a tunnel or two to the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, avoid the traffic of the roads. Great thinking! In Florida, where flooding even on no rain days but at high tide times, is growing. So, of course, build a tunnel beneath, into the soft limestone, and hope and pray that the construction, the pollution beneath, and the waters of the ocean itself do not drown the motorists within one bad rainy day. Not quite the same as a bad hair day, but seemingly, too many people are willing to write off common sense, all the better to make a buck, ignore the consequences.

How about the nonsensical studies that do nothing other than eat up funds needed elsewhere. A study finds that those who believe in vaccine conspiracies are more likely to get COVID, lose jobs and are more socially isolated. That's a duh! Add to that those who make up 'religious' reasons to avoid vaccination, evidently worshipping a vicious god who prefers that his believers die. Brilliant thinking there don't ya' think! 

A politician says "enough is enough" and came clean re details of his conversation with Trump wherein that toxic individual asked him to "find" some votes. Kinda' like 'finding' things that fell off a truck. Same difference. Except that this was a sitting President with a mad goal, a treasonous goal, to subvert a perfectly fine election - other than he lost, obviously - to overturn the democracy of this country. Fie! For shame! And yet, tragically, there are those brain dead believers. Still. With all the proof showing up, for the truth will always out. Will people continue to deny the truth, to forget that Lindsay Graham, that little toady, called for the rebels to be shot. Uh huh. With friends like that ..... well, you know the rest. The ugly rest.

But of all the discordant tones besieging the music of the spheres, the worst is that jagged, ear shattering, blood spilling, ever haunting to the point of murderous death, that discordant music of anti - Semitism. Every damned day yet another incident. Not really an 'incident' for that implies isolation, one here, one there. It is not so. A Nazi flag flown at a synagogue on Shabbat. Threat, vandalism, even shootings, bombs, attacks. The consequences rear their brazen, ugly, deadly heads. Their jagged teeth rip at the souls of all decent people. At the same time they heighten the level of fear, of despair. When the hell will these creeps ever leave us alone?! My guess - never. This hatred permeates their souls, feeds upon, encouraged, by the growth of an atmosphere of sanctioned hatred of others, the hatred generated and used as a political tool, an avenue to return to office and burn it all down.

For thousands of years Jews have sacrificed themselves as they sought to rescue their holy scroll, the Torah, or holy books. In a burning synagogue, there will always be those who run into that fire to save them. Thus, when in a frat house in George Washington University a Torah is selectively desecrated, as the animals ignore Christian items, the hackles are raised. The cost is growing each and every day; the fear , the hatred, the desecration, the shattering return of past horrors, questions as to where next, will it ever go away, will concentration camps and true ghettos once again blight the land?

 Do not answer quickly. Think it through and then think of the larger picture. What does it mean to and for the everyday person? Hatred never ends, forever needs to fill its gaping, ugly maw. Everyone is 'next'. Remember that. Feel it in your bones, in your guts, in your very souls.

Today is indeed the times which 'try men's souls". The words ring out loud and clear. The warning is loud. Either we shape up, as a union of humanity, of humankind, clear the air, literally and figuratively, or all our plans can be for naught. Such is the nature of our actions upon this earth. Use it or lose it? Use the proper way or we will lose it, and perhaps even deserve to, if after all the millennia we continue on our so wrong a path. Time to shape up indeed. No more prep. No more practice. We have run out the clock on that. Real existential time here, folks, the real game. Where will we be at halftime?