Tuesday, July 26, 2016

A Strange Dawn


A Strange Dawn

It is impossible to pinpoint the moment of dawn.  Like the opening of a lily,  its presence is suddenly realized, its nascence indistinct.  Its colourful tapestry is woven with a thread so fine the first stitch is invisible, forgotten.  One can only appreciate the whole.

For someone like myself, more familiar with the setting of the sun than its rising, I sit before my window in the black ink of the disappearing night, waiting for the coming of the dawn.  The artists have told me what to expect.  Friedrich shows me the colour of mangos, Grimshaw’s green marries sea and sky.  Turner paints the pinks and blues of a nursery.  But this dawn, when it finally comes, is strange; it has little in common with those of the masters.  

Like an newly born print in a darkroom, images appear slowly, traced in silver.  Off in the distance, heat lightning, silent and horizontal, flashes a warning of what the day might bring.  A warning, not a certainty.  Infinitesimally the colours of the day emerge, their vibrancy erased to monochrome by the unusual torridity of this month of July.  Like the healing words of truth and love, I long for the fresh, crisp air of Autumn to blow away the noxious haze that hangs like wet netting over the landscape.  

Then I’m nudged by a cold wet nose and look down to see a large furry dog glowing white in the pewter light, his eyes questioning, unblinking.  I glance back at the rising dawn, knowing it hasn’t told me everything that's to come. But I ruffle the big dog’s fur and let him lead me back to bed, still hoping for a better day, one more salubrious and sane than those of the previous week.

*****
“When someone shows you who they are, 
believe them the first time.”
Maya Angelou


Photo by Annie Leibovitz, 2006 Vogue Magazine

“Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it, 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read, 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty—to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”
Abraham Lincoln
Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858 

12 comments:

  1. OMG, the Lincoln quote ... he could have written it yesterday. However, it recalls another quote: FDR's "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Why, I wonder, are we having to learn all of this all over again?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my. Lincoln's quote. There is nothing new under the sun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because, I guess we didn't pay attention the first time.

      Delete
  3. I guess human brains are morphing/evolving back to the animal brain [humans are irrational beings], but then again, I don't want to insult the animals. So, never mind. Guess we'll have to rely on faith (says the faithless one.) Love the Maya quote.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And just today I told a friend I'd be moving to British Columbia if ..... gets elected. Oh Mark Twain. "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

    ReplyDelete
  5. If only our politicians could start their day with a PON welcome the world would be a better , more balanced place. Trump-PONs ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, sadly, nothing much changes does it Pamela.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Michelle Obama's speech and her words "America is the greatest country on earth" Quite a statement. Well, it certainly doesn't look that way to those of us who don't live there and hear the news reports.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am planning on hibernating for the duration. I first voted for McGovern and I have been in the trenches for along time... but I have to leave it to the capable millennials. I don't think I can take the vileness of the right wing. The fear and hatred of the right wing is so terrible...
    I have faith because history doesn't go backwards.. the middle ages gave way to the Renaissance -- of course many were burned at the stake but it happened. Peace to us all.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have always loved American ingenuity and zest for life - the sort of world described by Bill Bryson in The Thunderbolt kid.

    But I read in the news that American workers have not had pay rises in 40 years, that there is an army of "working poor" who need food stamps to survive, that the divide between rich and poor is extreme and then, the shootings in Texas showed a dystopian world that terrified me.

    Speaking as an absolute outsider, I feel sure that America will triumph over this latest threat, but I do really feel alarmed and I hope that people will turn out to vote to safeguard precious democratic freedoms.


    ReplyDelete

I love to read your comments! Each and every one! Though I'm always reading your comments, I may not respond in the comment section. If you want to write me directly, you may do so at pamela@pamelaterry.net. Thank you for reading!