With Strategery Like This...
Well, if you saw the news this morning about Dubya’s beloved friend, Turd Blossom, you can’t even begin to imagine the glee with which I began my day. I pinched myself. Nope, I’m awake. Then I checked the calendar. It’s neither April 1 nor December 25. To what do we owe this sweet deliverance?
I’m sure, however, that like most things, it will be rather short-lived. Before too long, Rove will be off to provide insightful strategery to some other conservative dope who can’t think for himself. That’s the stickler: Rove is smart enough to prey on people too tired, too dumb, or too busy to do their own strategery. He’s a really scary dude because for all the things he’s not, like kind or compassionate, he’s very, very smart, and evil. Really evil.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell the dumb ones from the smart ones. I have learned one thing: the smart ones never underestimate you. The dumb ones always do.
How dumb do you really think I am, 98.17.10#? Or is that, 98.17.12.#? Oh, wait, that was LAST week’s hidden proxy.
I’ve had several friends who’ve chosen to block their blogs and make them password protected because they’ve been stalked by real and virtual losers, and that’s a shame because these writers have a lot to offer. I have enormous respect for their reasons for doing so, but I’m not going to deny access to anyone who comes by looking for lyrics or artist info just because I have a coward or two lurking around my site to see what little details they can pick up to throw back at me later.
Down the road the nature and presentation of this particular site will morph and shift into a higher gear, ideally with additional contributors who represent the near and far reaches of the work undertaken in support of bluegrass and traditional music. I’m guilty of ranting about my personal life on here, and I’m bound to do it again on occasion, but I finally realized that overall it’s a tremendous waste of time, energy, opportunity, content, and my talent. (And my timing on this epiphany appears to be excellent since, according to this article which oddly enough appeared in today’s edition of MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20185446/, I’m boring you all to death, making you and myself miserable, and getting nowhere.) Except for my kids, there’s precious little I love more than music, and I intend to give it whatever I can. As I confided to one of my good friends, if I spent as much energy on music as I have on the junk in my life, by now I’d probably be running one of the organizations I’ve been writing about, or even one I’d started myself.
Which leads me to one last story that even my closest companions may not have heard. One day, after I had done everything I felt I could or should do to save my marriage (short of getting implants the size of my head), my ex looked at me and said, “You know, if you leave, you’ll never achieve your dream.” (A propos the difference between smart and dumb, I was standing at the counter at the time, with a knife in my hand, chopping vegetables for his dinner.) What a nice parting shot. Not, “How can we fix this?” Or, “Let’s get away for a couple of days and figure things out.” Just a big, fat, ugly, back-in-my-lap threat.
Given the glimpse I’ve had of just how much I could accomplish by leaving that kind of crap by the side of the road, and instead paying more attention to the support and encouragement I’m getting from the right places, it was an empty one, too. Time for new strategery!
Not too long ago I was in a store with my daughter, and I heard a familiar tune in an unfamiliar voice. Like the weirdo I am, I said aloud, “Hey, that’s a Jerry Salley song!” But it was, a terrific song called “I’m Gonna Take That Mountain”. It's sung here by one of my favorites, Reba McIntyre, but there's nothing like hearing the guy who wrote it. You can catch a snippet of Jerry and friends here. And I'm gonna send it out to a couple of friends I know are dealing with the great wall of unknown. Just take that mountain, bring it to you, it's just a big pile of rocks you can break down one stone at a time.
I'm Gonna Take That Mountain
I was born a stubborn soul
Ain’t afraid of the great unknown
Or a winding road that’s all uphill
This is just a stumbling block
Intimidating wall of rock
If you think this broken heart will break my will
I’m gonna take that mountain
Ain’t nothing gonna slow me down
And there ain’t no way around it
Gonna leave it level with the ground
Ain’t just gonna cross it, climb it, fight it
I’m gonna take that mountain
It’s overwhelming looking up
I know when it’s the challenge of -
Me against this heartache to survive
I may slip and I may fall
But even if I have to crawl
I’ll break through to the healing side
I’m gonna take that mountain
Ain’t nothing gonna slow me down
And there ain’t no way around it
Gonna leave it level with the ground
Ain’t just gonna cross it, climb it, fight it
I’m gonna take that mountain
Ain’t nothing gonna slow me down
And there ain’t no way around it
Gonna leave it level with the ground
Ain’t just gonna cross it, climb it, fight it
I’m gonna take that mountain
I was born a stubborn soul
This is a stumbling block
I’m gonna take that mountain
posted by Mando Mama @ 8:35 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
"If you leave, you'll never achieve your dream". That's the kind of thing that abusive people say. It really is a threat, it's someone attempting to keep control through fear. I've heard it before: "you'll never be any good without me".
As for Rove, I think that "more time with family" line is not fooling anybody. I just don't want to run into him out and about, and doubt that I will. Can't imagine him being a music fan.
Oh, MM, Rove's departure on one level warms my heart, but on another level, I would have preferred to see him dragged from the White House in chains.
As far as 98.17.10#, I thought I smelled something swampy.
Love you!
Shadow/J
Hey Friends,
Blueberry, it didn't occur to me what was going on until I was finally out. It was very disillusioning (and creepy). Why do men say shit like that?
A very close friend is going through some difficult times and I find myself reliving certain parts of the bad old days, and still having new insights. Not good ones, either. I think I was duped the entire time. If this person mentions the word "trust" to me one more time -- as in, "you have to trust me -- I swear I may in fact have to shove his pointy head back up his ass where it belongs.
Shadow....me too. But the fact that Karlsbad was clever enough to get out before he was indicted is a symptom of his sadly incurable smarts. In my opinion, he's just another toad.
;-)
You know, MM, in talking about Rove being brilliant and evil, I'm reminded of one of my favorite pieces of Medieval marginalia: it's in a manuscript in Durham Cathedral's collection and depicts the Devil turning a canon lawyer's head and saying something to the effect of "perhaps you did not know that I, too, am a master logician." The chilling clairity of mind is what distinguishes Bush from Ceney and Rove.
When did your ex extract his head from his ass? And why was I not kept informed of such a momentous occasion. Really, I still can't believe you spent that long with him, but in fairness, he did give you some great kids.
Shadow/J
Shadow,
You have an interesting eye on the world. There are so many little links to our present state in the past. (I would love to link folks to your brilliant piece on how like Rome we are becoming just before the fall.) That manuscript image should be on the cover of Time magazine with Rove's face superimposed (but leave the horny stumps).
As for X I don't know how we survived that long, either, except that probably once we had kids we expected things to be better, not worse. His subtle but near constant cut-downs undermined even his own ability to express affection, and ultimately he only brought out the worst in me and as one friend observes, still does.
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