Angela’s Ashes, a reaction

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Here’s something I wrote several years ago after watching Angela’s Ashes, a film based on the autobiographical book by Frank McCourt.  It was before 2008, before the Great Recession.  I think it applies to many more people now.

First, the excerpt that inspired me, spoken by a school teacher who sees the inequality to which the boys in his class are subject.

“It’s a disgrace that boys like McCourt, Clark and Kennedy have to hew wood and draw water in this so-called free and independent Ireland that keeps a class system foisted on us by the English.  Well, it disgusts me.  We throw our talented children under the dung heap.  If this is the end of school for you, you must get out of this country, boys, and go to America.”

Reaction:

So, where do we go? Where is today’s “Land of Opportunity”?  Where is hope? Perhaps the persistence and propagation of social ills and lack of great men and women of leadership is due to the lost resources of the bright minds, ingenuities and energies of a new generation, squandered by forces that care only of economics and power, and overwhelmed by a rotting corpse we call “old money”, the establishment, the status quo.

Worse yet is the new “consumption” [old word for tuberculosis] , apathy, that erodes not physical health, but compassion, intellect, and any sense of unity as the collective consciousness of a nation lapses into a coma, leaving reality to blow at random like a cold foreboding wind that aches the bones and opens the eyes of those few it touches.

And as their raspy throats cough up their warning cries, their stories fade to silence as the cold wind snakes along the grayest lowlands, never felt by those with sunshades on and fences built around their hilltop estates.

The regulars, cont’d

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Next there’s Joe and Helen.  I adopted a kitten from them last September.  He’s gray with white toes and white triangles on his nose and chest.  His name is Smokey and he has the softest fur I’ve ever felt on a cat.  Fortunately, he loves to be held because he’s irresistible.  Our ten year old cat, Wiley has taken him under his wing.  More on that later.

I like Joe and Helen.  They’re good people.  They have some strange family dynamics going on, though.  Joe sometimes comes in by himself to get cigarettes and always has alcohol on his breath.  In fact, he does when he’s with Helen too.  They have two kids, or that’s how many I’ve met.  Their daughter is 18.  I looked very closely at her license the first time she bought cigarettes.   Didn’t want to sell to a minor.  She once came in to buy a pregnancy test, then returned it because it didn’t give results early enough.  She said she’d kind of know by then anyway.   Of course it was only $4.00.  She said that was her bus money.  Did Joe and Helen know she was out?

I saw Helen at the 6 pack shop down the street one night after I closed up.  She was with a guy and seemed a little awkward.  She introduced him and told him I had adopted one of the kittens.  We talked very briefly and I continued on to find a microbrew I hadn’t tried.

They also have a son who looks to be about 11.  He’s independent as I guess he has to be, and talks with a slight speech impediment.  He seems the most well adjusted of them all.

The Joe and Helen family are moving this month.  When they told me a couple of months ago, I asked if they’d still be in the area.  Helen said no, and added almost wistfully, “somewhere far away…. hopefully.”  Perhaps they’re looking for a fresh start.  I wish them the very best.  I don’t judge people.  I just observe.  I had a stint of drinking heavily a couple of years ago myself, so I know it’s a difficult thing to deal with.

Life is Bipolar

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Life tears you up

Then folds you back into a gentle caress

Before spinning you off its hand like a jazz dancer

Right into the waiting seat of a roller coaster.

And when it stops,

You’re ready to go again.

Each ride, you see something different,

Once you stop screaming and open your eyes.

You see the person screaming next to you,

And how that used to be you.

The couple behind you,

The family ahead.

The trees, as they change seasons faster and faster,

until you can’t tell if you’re moving or they are.

Then, you find peace when the syncronized motion

Becomes the same as the stillness inside you.

Balance and harmony abide in you.

You stagger off from the ride,

Not from unsteady feet,

But from the unquenchable soul that pulls you on

To the next adventure

In a dream state

That leads your body

Through surreal awareness to

Serene chaos.

 

Written by Mark Thomas Ritchey

May 31, 2014, unedited