This diary is a mishmosh. I’m reading Oliver Sacks’s (do I need the extra “s”?) On the Move: A Life. It was a gift from my former SO and present opera buddy best friend. He is now recovering from a serious car accident. Why the connection?
Sacks really was a true genius and amazing person (like my opera buddy who is still alive unlike Sacks). I only relate to Sacks for 1 reason: He is a genius writer and he sucked at multiple choice tests but could nail essays. I suck at multiple choice tests and can nail essays. I am not a genius.
Sacks revealed to his father that he was attracted to boys but asked him not to tell his mother because she wouldn’t be able to take it. His father betrayed him and told his mother and he was subjected to the abomination attack.
Sacks indicates that, while he knew where his mother was coming from (old times and bible shite) he never got over the hurt. Who would? Here was a man who tried to understand the most outrageous thoughts of others (mistaking one’s wife as a hat) and so forth. I am just starting to read him with the above book because it was a gift from my opera buddy. He knew I loved a “New York Review of Books” article by Sacks written just before he died.
I’m at an age close to where people die and so could I in near times. That makes me think about the truly great minds I know in real life and in writing and art. In real life — my mother, my opera buddy, my eccentric libertarian science lawyer buddy, my nun buddies who work with the poor, and my Marxist friend (opera buddy’s colleague) who just walked me through my angst on the phone re: my opera buddy.
Most of us here are the abominable boomers (according to some). We’ve had early lives with protests or submissions, education of some kind or the scourge of the Vietnam Conflict. We’ve survived to be somebodies who are either good parents and grandparents, no parents or objects of hatred because we are all supposed to be hedge funders.
I’m only writing this piece to vent my sadness. Every boomer I know and care about is a loving, smart or not smart person. Others, including my extended family are hateful racists. Even the hateful racists should never hear from their mother that they are an abomination. They should hear that their mothers/fathers are sorry they believed fiction that made them hate enough to say those words.
Children should listen to their parents even if some are gaping assholes — others are just trying to do their best even though they seem not to provide the best. Listen because that is the way to learn. Children are at their best when they rebel against their elders. Sometimes we grow up and agree or realize we were right to rebel.
I’m rambling now. I have no kids to whom I need to extend apologies. I have done nothing in my life for which I’ve injured another being. I’m a boomer who finds all children and beings to be the atoms and energies of the universe.