The Cumberland Post

The Cumberland Post
My Backyard, Six Miles from the Cumberland River

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Somewhere I Lost Connection

Hope all you rednecks, gearheads, bikers, bareback riders, raconteurs, and wordbenders that I know out there on the internet highway system are doing well.

It's been a few days since I visited your sites.

I've been stuck in Lodi again. You know the place, that existential limbo that CCR's J. C. Fogerty wailed about back in the day...the place where you think you're just spending the night on your upward path to enlightenment (or fame and fortune)...but the place turns out to be a kind of NEVER NEVER land somewhere between possibly positive realities...or possibly other Lodis...you never really know about those other places unless you go.

Lodi. I thought I was going somewhere else, anywhere else. The man from the magazine said so...

The man from the magazine, 
said I was on my way,
Somewhere I lost connection...



But I guess I didn't realize he was THE MAN from that MAGAZINE though, the tricky big guy whose "Moving Finger writes and having writ, moves on," that indifferent jerk named Fate who sometimes writes with his middle finger. You know that guy?

So yeah, somewhere I lost connection, and now I'm out there in that Lodi wilderness sitting at Moses' Internet Bar, spillin' my guts out to Old Moses and sippin' on a really bad tasting beer, probably a Hudepohl, the beer that didn't make Cincinnati famous.

Not really.

I'm not at a bar, virtual or otherwise. And I've never been to the real Lodi, nor do I care to. But I am in that symbolic Lodi where my wheels have been spinning around, a place where I'm doing a lot of stuff but seem to be stuck.

I got a new blog going a couple of weeks ago where I could write a few pieces about my old political hero, Jack Kennedy, and promote our "JFK 50: A Memorial Album" as well as a book I've been working on.

You can check out that blog here.

Don't worry, you won't get stuck over there. You can always hit the back arrow. My latest post over there is a kind of press release (that will probably appear in the Lodi Ledger only :-), in which I argue that JFK was a centrist whose views appeal to both left and right, and that if his ideas were put forth by a politician today he/she and those ideas would possibly have a unifying effect on a divided nation.

Besides making that point, the release also mentions the EBook I spent most of the spring and summer spinning my wheels on--JFK 50: A Memorial in Drama, Poetry, and Song. I just put it up on Amazon and I've now added a pic (and an Amazon link) to the Cumberland Post's right column.

The small book (84 pages) is unusual in that it's a kind of play or drama for the reader. It's in a kind of "literary" style and  recalls the fear and grief the assassination led to, presents JFK's words and deeds, and makes the case for Kennedy's inclusion in our national pantheon of heroes. To open the book up a bit and illustrate certain points, there are 18 black and white photos. The songs on the aforementioned album are a part of this play too.

So much for that.

And here we are. Stuck again. Not sure how to get out of this post.

How about a weather report? The leaves are falling here in the hollow and there's a chance of frost.

Guess we're still here. Needing a finale.

Okay. It's a long way from CCR's Lodi to Les and Mary. But it's an out.

"Vaya Con Dios." See you next time.



2 comments:

  1. I surfed over to your book's web site and although I didn't comment there (my bad) I DID read. Well done, Dan, and I share your perspective on JFK. Like you, I was a liberal during those time and (once again) like you I became solidly conservative as middle-age came over me. If someone like JFK materialized on the political scene today he'd (or she'd) have MY vote.

    As for Lodi... I've been there. You ain't missed a gotdamned thing by not having been there, lemmee tell ya. ;-)

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    1. Always glad to get your comments Buck wherever they are. I think it may have taken me longer to see the common sense of conservatism, probably because I never heard anything good about conservatives in the ivory tower and never pushed myself outside my own comfort zone. But during my last ten years of work (53-63), I began to ask myself some hard questions--at least they seemed hard at the time. Once I pulled a few rocks out of the wall, the whole thing came down. JFK is still a political hero to me. His assassination kind of froze him in time in my recollection, so I have to remind myself that he was born in the same year as my dad, 1917. . .

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