On Stopping

Stopping means bringing a moving object or system to a halt. Things naturally get slower as they get colder, down to absolute zero, when all motion (even molecular vibration) ceases.

I was talking to Whitney last night before bed about it...it just feels like everything's stopping--the economy, politics, people's attitudes. Just grinding to a halt.

Yay, we have a new president. Yay, he signals an end to the basic racial divide in American history. So...what now? That seems to be the gut reaction--flowery rhetoric fails when cold reality frosts its dewy petals. I'm sure the last Byzantine emperor made many great speeches before the Turks battered down the walls with a cannon.

* * *

Americans have seen many dark winters: The troops at Valley Forge, the siege of Petersburg, and the Depression and its interminable bread lines and hopelessness. This looks to be another slog; I just hope a spoiled and cosseted generation can live up to the example our forebears set.

Comments

  1. Harold Combs1/26/2009 10:30 AM

    Chuck's Responses:

    "Welcome to capitalism, baby!"

    or

    "The Baby Boomers have had their moment in power. The most spoilt generation in history has handled affairs with its characteristic hedonism. The results are coming in. The blithering idiots."

    ReplyDelete

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