Beauty
and the Beast
“I
never saw an ugly thing in my life.” John Constable
“Looking
at fine paintings, we can see how the ordinary and everyday can be
made beautiful: maybe we can take the next step and see the beauty in
things we take for granted or even consider ugly.”
David
Ross
The
only thing better than spending peak-leaf week in North Carolina is
seeing Autumn all over again one month later in Alabama. I sometimes
grow tired and irritable over the political climate in this state,
but the landscape right now is every bit as beautiful as Alabama
politics is ugly. Just this week, one county in the state, elected a
dead Republican to the County Commission, rather than voting for a
living Democrat! I guess they'll hold their noses when they go to
meetings. As of Tuesday, not one single state-wide office is held by
a Democrat. Most of our governors go directly from the Statehouse to
the Big House. I live in the county that declared the biggest
municipal bankruptcy in US history—because all its Commissioners
skimmed the cream off the top. We elect folks that would make Bonnie
and Clyde blush! Al Capone could run for office here, y'all. I'm not
kidding!
I
heard a young and lonely Progressive Republican speaking on NPR
yesterday, who was lamenting the loss of the presidential election
because of the cadre of “old, white men with prehistoric notions about
women” who were determined to hold on to power in his party. Let me just
say, they should all move to Alabama. It will be the final resting
place of the last possible vestige of the 'Good Old Boys Club'.
All
that aside, the landscape is truly beautiful even in my old,
beat-down neighborhood. We don't have true mountains here, but we
have high-hills and they are glowing golden at the moment. It's
almost enough to make you okay with being unrepresented by your
elected representatives. Almost enough to make you forgive all the
crooks and scoundrels that have passed through our halls of power. I
am just crazy enough to be optimistic that someday, things will
change—even in Alabama. Maybe not in my lifetime, or that of my
children or grandchildren (should I ever have any), but eventually
this state will come to realize that there is life out beyond the
status quo. And that life is juicy and good for everyone—including
old, white men.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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