A tame one from a Blue Mountain Brewery growler was just right for last night, Tuesday, September 2nd, with its high dew point. Wife Kathy and daughter Elena picked it up for me when they were in Virginia for a baby shower. As son Micah and Kathy used power tools in the garage, I stood in front of the Kmart box fan in boxers—try to get that picture out of your head!—grateful that the neighbors can’t spot me when I’m in the kitchen. ABC’s David Muir anchored yet another day of withering news, and I sipped toward buzzdom, which was a wise course of action, considering the state of affairs.
George “Gabby” Hayes, an actor in old westerns (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
I should note that I really get up in the face of the evening news, my eyes twelve to eighteen inches from the screen. My jaw probably hangs open, too. Such a bizarre relationship we have, the news and I. Just when I decide to retreat from current events, take up residence in a media-free desert cave, and start to look like a Zen-Christian-hermit Gabby Hayes, another story grabs me by the beard. Check that: it’s not the story that takes hold of me, but the people. Maybe that’s why I’m nose to nose with what’s happening. I see faces and feel obligated to witness on their behalf, as if it’s my calling to stand with them in the only way I can: watch, don’t turn away.
Yesterday was heartbreaking. A brief recap:
ISIS militants followed through with their threat and hacked off journalist Steven J. Sotloff’s head. “I’m back, Obama,” the executioner said. Yeah, no kidding, tough guy. The victim was thirty-one. His mother begged for his release. I would have done the same. Worth a shot.
.jpg)
Kiddos just like these are forced to work the fields to support their families. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Refugee children in Syria have to work in the fields to support their families. Parents, many of them professionals, can’t work because kids are a cheaper pay-date. So they get up at the crack and fill bags of potatoes so full they can hardly lift them. We’re talking seven-, eight-year-olds. Babies! They have lovely, sweet faces that for some time now haven’t been in schoolrooms.
A nine-year-old girl lost control of an Uzi at a shooting range and shot her instructor in the head, killing him. The gun was too much for her, she said. The report went on to show other little kids under adult supervision firing big-ass moxie weapons.
Finally, photographs of naked celebrities are being hacked and made public. This, of course, is wrong as wrong can be. The surprise for me is how many people take nude pictures of themselves or let somebody else do so. Out of consideration for public safety, I would never be undressed around a camera or smartphone.
The best work for a child in a field . . . pretending to fly (Credit: Radius Images / Corbis)
These stories, a whiplash crash of barbaric and absurd, put me in a fog that the beer didn’t create: another beheading, babies the age of my church kiddos rushing to get potatoes into sacks to their overseer’s satisfaction, a girl who will have to live with malignant guilt forever, and nudies. The result was malaise and paralysis: a chunky guy in boxers with a nice beer in his hand, slack-face glowing in the television’s light. With a fat cigar, I would have been a poor man’s Winston Churchill. I stood there for the longest time, a blob of middle-age wishing there were a way to take those refugee children into my arms, tell them that they’re beloved, tuck them between clean sheets, and sit with them for breakfast before walking them to school. Children, damn it! I didn’t have any prayer in that moment other than sorrowful curses, weary four-letter words.
Of course, sad or pissed or ennui-drunk as you can be, there comes a point when continuing to stand around in your underwear is letting the %$&*@! with the knife win. I had done due diligence as a witness to my sisters’ and brothers’ realities, but was powerless to move on. Then, a whine rescued me.
All it takes is two people and a drawer, and you can find hope for the world.
Out in the garage, Kathy and Micah were running sanders over our kitchen cabinet doors, getting them ready for a fresh coat. The Coleman family kitchen has seen lots of action in the last thirteen years. Ah, if cabinetry could tell stories: daughter Elena’s rants and twilight escapes and slashes on the wrists; Micah’s howling girlfriend dramas and heroin and felony and house arrest; Kathy’s toil in nursing school and glad landing as a chemotherapy nurse; my own wrestling with anxiety and depression and hours of joyful, messy cooking. The kitchen was there for it all.
So the sanders’ whine took me to the back window, where I watched my wife and son working in the garage, the light spilling out over the silhouettes of sunflowers. During one tough stretch, they went months without speaking. Micah’s hands were perpetual fists, the veins in his forearms popping. Kathy and I just tried to make it through each day.
Love made visible an hour before dusk.
“Work is love made visible,” Khalil Gibran said. As I received the anointing of Kathy and Micah working away happily together and talking over the whine, joy sat down beside my malaise. No, my spirit wasn’t all better, but hope had taken paralysis in its arms.
I wasn’t moved by a woman and man sanding cabinet doors in a garage. My son had worked his painting job all day. He takes his responsibilities seriously and comes home tired. But he was out with his mom, not because he wanted to put shoulder to wheel for a couple more hours, but because he loves her. That was what I saw: love made visible.
When I went to bed, I kept watching in my mind Kathy and Micah in the garage under gentle light. I have a well in my chest where tears come from, and I could feel my wife and son’s love filling it with peace.
Dear Light, please comfort your people. (Credit: Sigurdas / Wikimedia Commons)
The older I get, the more flummoxed I am in the face of evil. If the world is always going to have rancor and brutality, maybe the best I can do is make sure that one tipsy man in boxers in one house in one neighborhood in one city will never—by God!—hold the knife or make children gather potatoes. That light from the garage, fragile, delicate as a candle flame: if I could just lift it up high enough for the world to see.
P. S. At lunch today Kathy called me. She was having a crazy, frustrating day, but she knew hearing my voice would make her feel better. That’s love for you. A glance at its light, a whisper from its lips, and the world is mysteriously fit for habitation again.
A Napper's Companion 
The news makes me crazy, too. Just can’t watch it.
Hey, Rose. Of course, I’m already crazy, so watching or not watching doesn’t seem to make much difference. Peace, sister. John
I think it’s beautiful that you find hope in the love you see all around you. I know it’s hard to muster that hope in the face of such evil, but I’m glad it’s there to help us to try.
Hey, Nancy. And honestly, your “keep moving” mantra (and the spirit it represents) visits me with energy and verve. And let me tell you, “verve” isn’t a word I use often! Peace, John
Élan, perhaps? Joie de vive? Pizazz? 🙂
Oh, man! Now I have to look shit up–except for pizazz. 😉
You definitely have some joie de vive going on, John!
The news scares me. Our world has gone amock. I drink my wine – away from my computer these days. Thanks for putting hope here for us to read.
Yeah, me, too, Lily. The beer was a break in the routine. I’m usually a wine guy. Here’s to hope! Peace, John
This world is a crazy place. No wonder so many people walk around with indifference on their shoulder. It takes real hard work to not become one of them. Keep Cool:)
Hey, Molly. Yeah, weird thing, I’ve very hopeful. It seems like writing is an avenue for working out doubt. It is what it is, I guess. Peace, John
You have brough peace to my day, as always.
Thanks, Beth. If you get peace, then I’m a happy camper. 🙂 John
The mister hates it when I spew at some of the evil people and their deplorable doings in the news because it distracts him! I could go on and on….I can’t pray for those people! I have thoughts to torture them right back!I know, not what I’m supposed to think! I even devise methods to do so! I have tears for the innocent, the fragile, and the brave ones! In the name of religion, sick and twisted rules in these religions…arrogance! Mine is better than yours and here’s why! Yes. the cool refreshing whites – chardonnay, sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio take me away for awhile! And yes, ladies, what were you thinking when you allowed yourselves to pose? Where was your self worth? Do really think that was HOW you need to portray yourselves? Well, if so, (because things go south of the border, sag, wrinkle, enlarge in places never thought about as we age), then, I guess you can mark that off your bucket list of things you thought you had to do to live the dream! Remember how I said I could go and on………..!
Hugs dear John,
Nancy
So does the mister purse his lips and snort when you get going? Ha! Hugs back at you and more thoughts coming on your more recent message. John
To respond to your question about how the mister reacts, he cups his right ear and leans forward or, as a more subtle gesture, he simply turns his head quickly as if to hear more intently and signally “You are being a real pain in the ass here, dear!” Yes, we entertain bombing thoughts and such. As an old oncology nurse myself, I have “nuclear” thoughts and picture the aftermath of what that could look like… blood cancers, radiation burns, the end. I am not pleased with the gun laws either, …never had access to guns until the “mister”! Chris was a hunter and so, he takes on a different perspective. Imagine that?
You are a wonderful person with such a light! That’s why I love reading your prose, blog! And the pics! You and your family have come through so much! I love how you write about them!
And, I have taken a liking to Leonard Pitts and some of his thoughts. In fact, about a year ago, I sent an e-mail to him! It must have been something I had a passion about at the time!
Take care and thanks for coaching, sharing and making us all THINK and LAUGH!
Thank God, you don’t “grade” my stuff as I pick out errors in my responses! Whew!
Nancy
Hey, N. So wonderful to be in touch with you in this way. I wrote to Leonard Pitts, too. He said he’d get back to me. We’ll see. On the family front, I’m a grateful man, no doubt about that. “Coaching, me?” Hmm, not sure about that. I was serious about dinner, by the way. Next time I write to you, I’ma have my calendar handy. It would be fun. Peace, John
We’ll be in the wings! I have to admit, it would be so nice… we have all morphed in some way by now!
Check out a song by the Indigo Girls: Let it be Me.
I did! Yeah, I need to shine my light! I see, change the focus!
🙂 Exactly. I couldn’t find a great link, but this’ll work
Wow. That is one of the most beautiful, stirring songs I’ve ever heard. I’m a little verklempt here . . . no kidding. Thanks for sharing that with me. Peace, John
Glad you like it.
Got to tell you, Nancy, I struggle mightily. Part of me thinks, “Why are we putting up with this shit? Let’s bomb some asses off the map!” And I just read a Leonard Pitts editorial on the 9 year old and the Uzi. He basically said that our gun laws are dumb. Yup. And the hacked nudies! Puh-leeze! Hacking is wrong, but superstars letting their knockers or nuts get photographed, knowing those shots are floating in cyberspace, are on a mental hiatus. Anyway, just want you to know you’re not alone in your grrrrr-ness. Sometimes my light gets almost snuffed out. Peace, John
Oh that’s all bul-oney. Lionsgate released the new poster for mockingjay today. That nudie stunt has leak written all over it.
As an official old fart, I had to look up your reference. So, a lil something to get everybody randy for some Jennifer Lawrence? Got it. In my defense, I thought while listening to the story that it might be a way of using a bit of “t” and “a” to drum up publicity for profit’s sake. Bologna, John