SEA OF RELATIVISM

caterpillar dreaming

It's late and I'm ready to turn in. I wanted to at least say hi. I've started writing down quotations I hear on the radio, the news primarily. One from this morning when I was getting up, sitting on the bed putting on socks and shoes, another preacher politician was running his mouth. He said, "People are adrift in a sea of moral relativism." That was Rick Perry. Sounds great. Sounds like it even has meaning. I guess he'd like us to live in a world like in court where someone on the witness stand is told by the prosecutor to answer a complex question with yes or no. It's not one or the other, but you're bound by law and will be charged with contempt if you say it can't be answered yes or no. In the world as he'd have it, we can only be for or against, true or false, polar opposites. Kind of limited. Not much room for the subtleties. A friend I have lunch with from time to time made a remark about there is only right and wrong, good and evil, gray in between. I said, between the poles is where the colors are. NO IT'S NOT!!! I thought, whatever.

Another good quote found yesterday. "Eating healthy costs hundreds of dollars more a year." This was some research finding told on the news. I guess that means junk food is discount food. It sounds to me like one of the male rationalizations for not having a dog. The cost of feeding them adds up to hundreds of dollars a year. If it's going to cost hundreds of dollars a year, then it better be worth it. The dog better be able to hunt if a man's going to pay money for one. A man will pay good money for a good hunting dog. That thinking leaves out the heart enjoyment of a good four-legged friend for however many years it lives. Like justifying not having a pet because they die and it's too sad to want to experience for the sake of having a dog. That's leaving out however many years of having a friend like no other. I can't tell what the quote really means, eating healthy costs hundreds of dollars more a year. Is that trying to sell eating poorly, costs less, discount, bargain, liquidation sale. Who wants to eat healthy when it costs more? Driving a SUV will cost you like crazy for gas, and a Mini Cooper costs a lot less for gas. Which do you want? The one that costs more? The one that costs less? By relentless advertising on tv, we've been trained for a lot of years to want what costs the least. Now we're being told costing more is favorable, like Grey Poupon. 

Friends visiting. We watched Robert Altman's NASHVILLE. I remember thinking neither here nor there of it when it was new, 1975. By now, 36 years later and multiple hundreds of movies seen, maybe thousands, I saw it with new eyes. First, I had no memory of any scene throughout the film. It was brand new as if the first time. My appreciation soared for it this viewing. Early in the film I was exclaiming that Altman is attempting to make the great American film. By the time it was over, I was thinking he might have succeeded. A guy that hated his mother went to Nashville to kill his mother's favorite singer. If I recall correctly from back when it was new, Altman didn't use a script. He evidently set the actors in a time and place and let them ad lib what they had to say. The different actors wrote the country songs they sang. Several of them were good parodies of country music themes. I was in awe throughout of Altman's vision of the American people. It's a world of the people we know, not just glamorous movie star wannabes we only see in airports.

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