Archive for July 17, 2010
Them Are Coming
by John Weckerle
Today was a day of great activity – yard work, errands, grocery shopping, harvesting (well, just one zucchini today), cooking wyngette stew for dinner… It was an up-with-the-sun-and-get-to-it kind of day, and one that brought some insight into life and how it works.
During the errands, I found myself headed down an aisle in one of the Edgewood grocery stores, and almost ran into one of our local citizens. This is a person with whom I have at times disagreed, here and elsewhere, but with whom I have always had a congenial relationship. At least, so I thought. I greeted him with a friendly “Hey, <insert name here>, how’s it going?” and was surprised when he simply looked away, grunted, “Hey,” and pushed his cart very pointedly past and off into the middle distance – and ultimately into the rest of it. It took a second for me to process the situation and realize: to him, I have apparently become one of Them.
Now, the subject of Them is of particular interest to me at this time for a number of reasons. I recently listened to a recording of an old radio show from the 1960s, one of the many nightly broadcasts of an author and commentator by the name of Jean Shepherd. Shep, as he was known to his fans, was the author of (among other works) a book titled In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash (the movie A Christmas Story, narrated by the author, is based on part of this book). In this particular recording, Shepherd (who never really discussed politics, but commented on life in general) expounds upon a syndrome we see throughout history – as he puts it (more or less), the belief that all the bad things in the world come from somebody else’s rottenness, or stupidity, and if we could just get rid of Them, everything would be wonderful – “Peace and beauty, through us.” »» Them Are Coming