The Explanation
(for those who require one)
And, of course, that is what all of this is -- all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs -- that song, endlesly reincarnated -- born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it. That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 -- same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."
-- Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather
3 comments:
The single image I remember most about the forced integration of the South Boston schools was, I believe, an encounter outside a school board meeting where one of the protesters from "Southie" attacked a Black man (a school board member if memory serves) with a flag staff on which was the American flag as other protester shouted "Southie is White!" Nasty brutal stuff.
Isn't there a famous photo of that event? I seem to recall seeing something very much like that.
Stephen asked:
Isn't there a famous photo of that event? I seem to recall seeing something very much like that.
*****
There is. In fact I came very close to posting that one originally, but it's a pretty brutal image (one of the reasons it won a Pulitzer Prize) so I decided not to.
I may post it at some point in this series, though.
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