Starting to feel like Clint Eastwood in The Gauntlet.
Somewhere in Ohio in 2009.
I visit my parents and those (four) siblings still in Chicagoland, where I grew up but left for good (not because I don't love the city) almost 30 years ago. Three of us live in DC-area. When I make this pilgrimage the song that leaps most prominently to mind is Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks," not Sinatra's "Chicago, My Kind of Town" or Graham Nash's "Chicago." I love both of those artists and songs, too, but for a couple of reasons Zeppelin's lyrics come to mind:
Don't it make you feel bad?
When you're trying to find your way home you don't know which way to go?
When you're going down south and there's no work to do
And you're going on to Chicago
[snip]
All last night sat on the levee and moaned
All last night sat on the levee and moaned
Thinking about my baby and my happy home
Going - going to Chicago
Going to Chicago
Sorry, but I can't take you (From "When the Levee Breaks," Led Zeppelin, 1971)
The original song, altered and adapted by Led Zeppelin, came from 1929, written by the African-American duo, Memphis Minnie (Lizzie Douglas) and Kansas Joe McCoy, at the time a husband and wife act (most assuredly musical geniuses significantly under-appreciated (and under-compensated) by the dominant culture within which they plied their craft during their lifetimes and I'm sure under-appreciated to this day for their genius). Zeppelin's cover of the song, which appeared on Led Zeppelin IV, does at least credit Memphis Minnie by name but not Kansas Joe McCoy. Still, not enough due credit was given if you ask me now. (What appears to be a version of the original seems to have been streamed to Youtube--sorry, I am not able to embed.)
I would have loved to have known about, even seen Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe perform the original, the former of which experience is at least plausible today thanks to the Internet. Seeing (or hearing them perform) not so possible since they both weren't around long enough performing together for me to catch their act. Still, one can dream. I was at one of Zeppelin's two concerts in July of 1973 at the Chicago Stadium but couldn't tell you which one and didn't even know that the playlist did not include "When the Levee Breaks" until seeing the playlist at the link above. I don't remember a lot of details from life in the early 70s, to be honest, for reasons I won't expound on here, except to say that at least I wasn't driving a car or motorcycle during that period, thereby limiting the damage that I could have done while otherwise occupying my mind and body with various chemistry experiments. These days, having survived to an age at which "retirement" actually could become a possibility, I do try to exercise greater caution in many things where, in the past, reckless would better describe my attitude and behavior. I'm especially careful on the road.
Increasingly, riding on two wheels in this country feels more like "running the gauntlet" than enjoying the pleasures of the open road.
Starting to feel like Clint Eastwood in The Gauntlet.
This is not much of an exaggeration.
One great concern I have while biking is the person who, so engrossed in solving the world's problems (and reserving that table at Red Lobster for 7:00 p.m.) will suddenly realize his/her exit is not half a mile ahead but 60 feet ahead and do a three-lane-change quick exit, never spilling drop of latte but causing all vehicles behind to hit the brakes, and in my case seize the family jewels from the inside, and pray. I know everyone knows and sees this stuff. Maybe some people on this site actually engage in this kind of activity to a lesser or more egregious extent. Perhaps it's needless to point out that any one of us, no matter how left-of-center or right-of-center we count ourselves, no matter how concerned for the environment, our neighbor's welfare, the future of our democratic system, can also get so engrossed the important issues of our day that we overlook the potential impact any one of our actions might truly have on others.
Adam and his trusty steed.
Individuals on the left must also be selective as to where "satans" practice their craft or in what areas those evil ones must (or simply can) most effectively (or conveniently) be called out for heaping helpings of righteous fury and scorn. Fracking is clearly bad, war abominable, labor exploitation horrifying. Still, it's hard to escape being called out once in awhile if our practice and preaching don't fully match up. We, too, are perhaps yoked to the fossil-fuel burning society in which our relatively cheaply purchased (on a global scale, at least) gasoline and electronic devices might well arrive as such thanks to cheap labor or militarism. No one can be on the "right" side all the time.
Where folks of every political stripe can sometimes come together, it seems, is in how they treat each other, consciously or unconsciously, on the nation's highways. If you read BruceMcF's
excellent diary from Sunday on railway and other travel safety, you'd have seen a quote from the Bureau of Traffic Statistics citing that "nearly 900,000 people died in highway crashes" between 1990 and 2011. Within that appallingly high number are liberals and conservatives, careless and careful, negligent and criminal; you name it, in a number that large, every "type" one can imagine must be covered.
Me, I own being a hypocrite just being dead wrong quite frequently. And crazy as it sounds, I still plan on hitting the road this week, heading west, maybe singing Zeppelin to myself, maybe trying to sing the original "When the Levee Breaks," if I can listen to it enough before I leave to get the words and tune right. I intend to get to Chicago and back safely, to see my 80-something parents and aging siblings, notice whatever beauty I can along the way--and there still is some of that as well, as much as folks I sometimes see as "satans" seem bent on repackaging and redistributing it all. I guarantee I'll see trucks and workers heading out to fracking sites, have for the last several years in PA and OH, probably see some hypocrites on the left and right, even if it doesn't show on the surface, probably do or say a couple of things that count me within their ranks as inconsistent on principles. I'll see lots of folks using electronic devices and chomping on fast food, too. Always do. Maybe I'll ask for a french fry one of these times. In my heart, I'll try to let all of us off the hook for awhile. Hell, it's a vacation, and dammit, we're all Amurricans after all. Besides, if I make it this trip, I still plan on visiting my friend, DaNang65 next year, with his permission that is, plan on riding all the way out to Arizona. I hear there are some amazing people and places out that way, and I intend to see as many and much of both as I can--while I'm still here, the "good lord willing," as they say, and the Levee Don't Break. Peace to all, and safe travels.
