I'm listening to a mix of music this morning, and Bob Dylan's voice, ragged, croaking, definitely a voice that wears many years sings..."Wish I was back in the Land of Cotton..." Right, in the land of cotton, there would be no sharp edges, everything would be soft, puffy and white. We could play, (yes, even frolic) and the land would be our forgiving friend, embracing us with big cotton swabs...(remember J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye?"), in this case, there'd be a Catcher in the Cotton!
Wouldn't it be cool?
What if there was a heaven, and it was really easy to get in, populated with all the kind, cool, forgiving, beautiful people that you've met in your life (you've met some, right?) instead of the Super Elite Country Club, populated by the creepy bunch of sanctimonious assholes, as per my native creed (am i projecting here?).
What if we had a world where love, truth, beauty, forgiveness, were the highest ideals? What if we acknowledged the beauty and creativity in every child? What if we constructed a society that rewarded the kind? What if we valued people's contribution to the world by how much they gave, not how much they had? What if...anyway, you get the idea...I'm dreaming this morning of the land of Cotton, where it's easy, sweet, soft and cool...
Of course, I think it's better to just be dreaming of such a place, it wouldn't be a good place to actually live, not as a human being, too boring, (we need that constant play of dark and light), but it'd be a great place to visit once in a while, a counter-balance to the Land of the Knives!
By the way, I'd like to honor one (two) of my heroes: 50th Anniversary, Howl, In loving memory Allen Ginsberg 1926 - 1997
"Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace things, but burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes 'AWWW!'"
Jack Kerouac
On the Road
1957
UPDATE: I read this post to the Lovely Carla (I'm really flying this morning), and her pithy response, "Dude, you are so old!"