Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

The opening track on side two of Judy Collins' Colors of the Day* is "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" Her delivery is heartfelt, poignant and moving. I've listened to it countless times over the years and it always soothes. The lyrics begin like this.

Across the morning sky, all the birds are leaving
How can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I do not count time
Who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?

Time is experienced in many ways. There are the seasons, and there are the days -- sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset. Sometimes, when you are longing for something, time drags. Other times it seems to fly. 

The birds, in tune with the seasons, depart for warmer climates each autumn. But the narrator accepts the winter, lost in a different kind of time... that is timeless.

Sad deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving
Ah, but then you know it's time for them to go
But I will still be here, I have no thought of leaving
I do not count the time
Who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?

The second verse addresses departure in a different manner. But our narrator is unconcerned, floating in that timeless sphere beyond it all. The reason is explained in verse three. She is not alone while her lover is near. And though disruptions occur, and he flies away, she knows that he will return, like the dawn, like the birds, like the ebb and flow of the sea. She's in that state of being where she's untouched, nourished by the painful sweetness of things we don't fully understand but accept. 

And I am not alone while my love is near me
I know it will be so until it's time to go
So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again
I have no fear of time
Who knows how my love grows?
Who knows where the time goes?

The song speaks of mystery, of something ethereal, indefinable. Resignation? Acceptance? Perhaps it's simply that sense of being immersed in timelessness. 

Where is this timeless place? It's an interior spatial plane, a place we miss because of the blistering pace of most of our lives. We rush about from here to there, escaping from our selves. 

In Psalm 23 the psalmist writes, "He leads me beside still waters." Those "still waters" are within. If we would just be still we could be comforted and nourished by them. 

* * * 

Myintroduction to Javier Bardem came via the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men. His portrayal of Anton Chiguhr, the villain he brought to life on the silver screen, was more than memorable. It also won him a well-deserved Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. And it stirred a desire in me to see more of his films. (I have since seen many.)

One of these was The Dancer Upstairs, directed by John Malkovich. It's a powerful film on so many levels. The casting is perfect, especially the lead characters played by Bardem and Laura Morante. (You can read my review here.) 

In the final scene, post-climax, there's a subtle resolution that takes place. The scene is accompanied by a soundtrack featuring another version of "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" except it's not by Judy Collins or Sandy Denny, the song's author. Rather, it is Nina Simone, and it's an absolutely wonderful rendition, beginning with a lengthy spoken introduction, both in this recording and also in the film. The purpose of this blog post was, in part, to share this song:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXeh742_jak

* Colors of the Day is actually a Best of Judy Collins album, so the song originally appeared earlier, on the flip side of her version of "Both Sides Now."

The Half-Remarkable Question

I was introduced to the music of the Incredible String Band in the fall of my Freshman year at Ohio U. The playfulness of their unusual instrumentation, Scottish accents and metaphysical themes all combined to resonate with some part of my own interior quest for meaning. To this day I still smile when the climax of "Ducks On A Pond" is playing on my inner soundtrack.

"Following my fortune now the Holy Grail is found
and the Holy Bread of Heaven is given all around;
Farewell sorrow, praise God the open door
I ain't got no home in this world any more."

In literature, the word Onomatopoeia refers to words in which the sound of the word echos the thing itself. Examples might include words like sizzle, splat, eek, boing, gurgle.

The other night I was thinking about the Incredible String Band's song "The Letter", how the song itself was delivered in a style that reflected the song's message, much the same as those words that sound like what they are. "The Letter" is about how light-hearted the recipient became when he received it and that even the plane that brought it "must have been a little bit lighter."  

The lyrics sparkle and the song sprinkles some of that sparkling into one's very heart if you let it. 

* * * 

"The Half-Remarkable Question" is the last track on Wee Tam, which was sold as a double album, the second disc being called The Big Huge. The questions make me think of Paul Gaugin's famous painting Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 

These really are the big questions, and I sometimes wonder if anyone is asking them any more? And if not, why not? 

The Half-Remarkable Question  

Who moved the black castle
Who moved the white queen
When Gimme and Daleth were standing between?

Out of the evening growing a veil
Pining for the pine woods that ached for the sail
There's something forgotten I want you to know
The freckles of rain they are telling me so

Oh, it's the old forgotten question
What is it that we are part of?
And what is it that we are?

And an elephant madness has covered the sun
The judge and the juries they play for the fun
They've torn up the roses and washed all the soap
And the martyr who marries them dares not elope

Oh, it's the never realized question
What is it that we are part of?
And what is it that we are?

Oh long, oh long ever yet my eyes
Braved the gates enormous fire
And the body folded 'round me
And the person in me grew

The flower and its petal
The root and its grasp
The earth and its bigness
The breath and its gasp

The mind and its motion
The foot and its move
The life and its pattern
The heart and its love

Oh, it's the old forgotten question
What is it that we are part of?
And what is it that we are?

* * * 
You can listen to the song here.

I still enjoy their music and listen from time to time. Here's a favorite, simple and profound: Air. Keep in mind that, like Dylan for some, the Incredible String Band is an acquired taste. I won't hold it against you if they aren't your cup of tea. 

Lewis Lapham's Money and Class in America

Lewis Henry Lapham is an American writer. He was the editor of the American monthly Harper's Magazine from 1976 until 1981, and from 1983 until 2006. He is the founder of Lapham's Quarterly, a quarterly publication about history and literature, and has written numerous books on politics and current affairs. --Wikipedia

* * * 

For years I was a subscriber to Harper's Magazine during the second period Lewis Lapham served as editor of the publication. Many, if not most, magazines have an opening letter from the editor, and Lapham's lengthy editorial was always something I looked forward to reading. George Plimpton called him a cross between Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken. Even when not in alignment, his prose was pointed and insights worth chewing on, even when sad and cynical. 

For this reason I went on to acquire his book Money and Class in America. Its subtitle: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion. 

While reading yet another story about California, wealth and poverty recently, Lapham's California pedigree came to mind. I pulled it off the shelf in search of a couple comments he made about his family. Now I'm re-reading it and appreciating it even more than the first time I'd held it in my hands.

The factoid I was looking for I haven't found yet, but it went something like this: his family once owned about one-fourth of the real estate of California. What I did find was that his great-grandfather was a co-founder of Texaco and his grandfather was once mayor of San Francisco. Lapham came from money -- as in Big Money -- and understand the paradoxes associated with wealth.

Here's an overview of the book's contents. 

Money and Class in America

Creative Commons license. Author uncited.

Never in the history of the world have so many people been so rich; never in the history of the world have so many of those same people felt themselves so poor.

Chapter One: The Gilded Cage
Seeking the invisible through the imagery of the visible, the Americans never can get quite all the way to the end of the American dream.

Chapter Two: Protocols of Wealth
The history of the United States is synonymous with the dream of riches.

Chapter Three: The Golden Horde
At this late stage in the history of American capitalism I'm not sure I know how much testimony still needs to be presented to establish the relation between profit and theft.

Chapter Four: The Romance of Crime
The pose of innocence is as mandatory as the ability to eat banquet food and endure the scourging of the press.

Chapter Five: Social Hygiene
Once having proclaimed our loyalty to the abstract idea that all men are created equal, we do everything in our power to prove ourselves unequal. Among the world's peoples, none other belongs to so many clubs, associations, committees and secret societies.

Chapter Six: The Precarious Eden
The rich, like well brought up children, are meant to be seen, not heard.

Chapter Seven: Descent into the Mirror
Since the eighteenth century the immense expansion of the world's wealth has come about as a result of a correspondingly immense expansion of credit, which in turn has demanded increasingly stupendous suspensions of disbelief.

Chapter Eight: Holy Dread
Wars might come and go, but the seven o'clock news lives forever.

Chapter Nine: Coined Souls
That the obsession with money dulls the capacity for feeling and thought I think can be an axiom requiring no further argument.

Chapter Ten: Envoi
Surely they knew that the very idea of the future came in an American box - complete with instructions for assembling a Constitution, a MacDonald's hamburger franchise, a row of Marriot hotels and a First Amendment.

* * *

The book is a pretty scathing indictment of American values. Today there are more riches than ever being showered on sports stars, Hollywood celebrities, Silicon Valley whiz kids and Wall Street bankers. Lapham asks, "What's the point of all this wealth without Character?" Hence we see the self-destruction emblazoned across headlines, Tweets and supermarket tabloids. 

"If we could let go of our faith in money, who knows what we might put in its place?"

The Broken Windows Theory Has Important Implications for Us All

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

broken windows theory: academic theory proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982 that used broken windows as a metaphor for disorder within neighborhoods. Their theory links disorder and incivility within a community to subsequent occurrences of serious crime.  --Brittanica

* * * 

The broken windows theory is a criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking and fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.

The theory was popularized in the 1990s by NYC police commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose policing policies were influenced by the theory. The result was a 40% reduction in felonies, with a 50% drop in homicides.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory#Other_effects

* * * 

What most needs explanation is not why some people are criminals, but why most people are not. --James Q. Wilson

According to the Brittanica account, the broken windows theory "further posits that the prevalence of disorder creates fear in the minds of citizens who are convinced that the area is unsafe. This withdrawal from the community weakens social controls that previously kept criminals in check. Once this process begins, it feeds itself. Disorder causes crime, and crime causes further disorder and crime."

The authors propose that to succeed at preventing vandalism communities must address the problems when they are a small. If broken windows are fixed quickly, there is less likelihood you will have more broken windows. Clean the sidewalks every day and there is less littering. When you allow problems to escalate, "respectable" residents flee the neighborhood.

Right now, I am dealing with rats in our goose barn. When I saw the first evidence of rats being present I should have been more proactive. By allowing them to multiply, it has been a much lengthier battle. 

"Public order is a fragile thing, and if you don't fix the first broken window, soon all the windows will be broken."--James Q. Wilson

Worth Reading: The Fall of Seattle, by T.A. Frank

The Art of Digital Photography

When you were a kid, did you ever 

take things apart to see how they worked? 

These are parts from the dismantling of a few old digital cameras.

It's probably similar to taking the engine apart on your car. 

The challenge is putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.

No, not the cameras, just the car engine.

All the President's Men, Revisited (Plus a Handful of Ben Bradlee Quotes)

"Nothing's riding on this, except maybe the first amendment of the constitution of the Constitution, freedom of the press and, maybe, the future of the country."
--Ben Bradlee

"Now hold it, hold it. We're about to accuse Haldeman, who only happens to be the second most important man in this country, of conducting a criminal conspiracy from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right."
--Ben Bradlee

* * * 

I just finished watching All the President's Men again, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the journalists who broke the Watergate story that brought down the Nixon presidency. The film brought to mind some personal experiences from that period of history as well as Sy Hersh's insightful autobiography, Reporter.

Though the film focuses on the efforts to which Woodward and Bernstein went to uncover the hidden connections between Watergate and the Nixon White House, Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee is the steady presence in the Washington Post newsroom who followed his instincts by allowing his two young guns to tackle this big story. Other veteran reporters felt someone more seasoned should lead this investigation. 

Yes, there were missteps, but the work they undertook was ultimately revealing, and rewarded.

There is always a need for intentional, persistent reporting at every level of government, whether federal, state or local. The challenges are many. No one wants reporters to upset the status quo apple cart. No one in power wants reporters snooping around to find out who's hands are manipulating the strings of the figures in the spotlight. 

Ben Bradlee put his reputation on the line when he stood behind the work of his young reporters, one of whom had only been on the Washington beat for less than a year.

What's unfortunate is when reputable newspapers sacrifice integrity to put forward an agenda. Opinion pages are fine for that, but when important stories get buried because they don't fit a pre-set narrative, it damages the reputation of the whole business. 

When the Gallup organization polled Americans with regard to how much they trust the media, the results should have been a wake-up call. Here are the key takeaways from that report:

• 9% in U.S. trust mass media "a great deal" and 31% "a fair amount"
• 27% have "not very much" trust and 33% "none at all"
• The percentage with no trust at all is a record high, up five points since 2019

33% have no trust at all. That's a pretty dismal record. 

* * * 

Here are some additional Ben Bradlee quotes to accompany this brief post about an important issue in our time (not Watergate, but journalism):

--As long as a journalist tells the truth, in conscience and fairness, it is not his job to worry about consequences. The truth is never as dangerous as a lie in the long run. I truly believe the truth sets men free.

--As a child, one looks for compliments. As an adult, one looks for evidence of effectiveness.

--It changes your life, the pursuit of truth, if you know that you have tried to find the truth and gone past the first apparent truth towards the real truth. It's very, it's very exciting.

--If an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be 'gotcha' journalism, but it's also good journalism.

--It is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth.

--Everybody who talks to a newspaper has a motive. That's just a given. And good reporters always, repeat always, probe to find out what that motive is.

In the perfect world every source could be identified,
but like the man said, "It's not a perfect world."

* * * 

The Disaster No One Talks About: Venezuela

Refugees in Bogata make crafts out of 
worthless Venezuelan cash.

Trendy economists say the US can spend much more, and pay for it by printing more money. This won’t cause further inflation, say "modern monetary theorists."

But one country recently tried “printing more money." Here's what happened:

A lot of us either never knew or have forgotten that Venezuela was the wealthiest nation in South America. Petroleum revenue rewarded it with wealth. It was a socialist government that became a darling of the Left. Hugo Chavez (president from 1999-2013) spent big bucks on social programs. He even sent money to the U.S. to help provide heating oil for poor Americans.

A combination of political corruption and hyperinflation after his departure sent the country's economy into a tailspin. In 2014 inflation stood at 69%. By 2015, inflation was now 181%. That means what used to be a dollar in January 2014 was less than 30 cents by the end of two years. Inflation was up 800% by end of 2016 and 4,000% in 2017, followed by 1.7 million percent in 2018.

According to details at Wikipedia "By early April 2019, the 18,000 Bs.S monthly minimum wage was the equivalent of $5.50 – less than the price of a McDonald's Happy Meal. Ecoanalitica estimated that prices jumped by 465% in the first two and a half months of 2019. In March 2019, the Wall Street Journal stated that the 'main cause of hyperinflation is the central bank printing money to fund gaping public spending deficits,' reporting that a teacher could only buy a dozen eggs and two pounds of cheese with a month's wages."

* * * 

Over the past 30 years my brother has taken 28 trips to South America to teach counseling to church leaders in various countries. When the Venezuelan economy imploded, as many as six million citizens fled their homeland, flooding into neighboring South American countries. My brother saw first-hand the challenges of this refugee crisis, which has received little coverage in our media here. Only Saudi Arabia has produced more refugees than Venezuela since 2000. 

If the war in Ukraine continues, refugee numbers will likely surpass Venezuela in magnitude, though it is a crisis of a different character. 

* * * 

Please note, this is not an appeal to eliminate social programs. Rather it is an appeal for our government to embrace basic fiscal responsibility. The motive behind much government largesse seems more about winning voters than doing what is best for these voters and the future of the country. 

The second lesson in this story--the first being that we need to cringe when politicians say they want to solve our problems by printing more money--is to note how quickly the strongest economy became a disaster.

America is not immune from stupidity or corruption. Let's not say "It can't happen here." Rather, let's say, "It MUST NOT happen here."

* * * 

Read more about Hyperinflation in Venezuela.

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