Digressions of a Dilettante

Digressions of a Dilettante
Vignettes of Inanity by Bud Hearn

Thursday, October 25, 2007

State of Denial ...

Friends: State of Denial…


Well, here we are, having arrived at that weekend on the Georgia Coast where the University of Georgia and the University of Florida meet in Jacksonville at what was once billed as the “largest tailgate party in the world,” or something like that. This year the Dawgs hope to defeat their arch-rival Gators for only the 3rd time in the last 18 years…I think my stats are correct, but the source was a man with a withered arm and may not be reliable.

“Hope” is the operative word here, and it is always helped along by an abundance of alcohol. Already, the university gang is arriving, and at last check there was no more ice on the island, and the beer trucks were lined up five-deep on the Causeway to the island. Of course, we more moderately disciplined and mature among the celebrants, and certainly the more decorous, have private affairs planned where more mature subjects other than college chatter is held in hushed and silent whispers: “What was your golf score,” or “Where is your latest ache,” such stuff as that. About as meaningless as the crowd in the Village hanging out of the convertibles and off the motel balconies chanting oms or other indecipherable chants and rituals of passage, which has of course passed us by long ago! Ugh.

The term “State of Denial” could apply to some attitude, or in this case to the state of Georgia as a whole. We’re denying a whole lot of things this weekend…like drinking water, for example. Reservoirs are bone dry and laded with red mud, fish lie rotting on the shore, and lip service is what the Gov is proclaiming…cut down on your showers, save a little water. And the City of Brunswick is trying to curtail the look of baggy pants and underwear that shows…denying the future leaders of the State their rightful expression of rebellion. But most of all we are in a state of denial that the point spread on the game if just 8 points…that’s right, folks, just 8 points.

But, Hey, denial has always been with us. Richard Jenkins writes a poem, some of which I excerpt for you to meditate on:

“…..Well, how else are you to live except by denial,
By some palatable fiction,
Some little song to sing
While the inevitable,
The black and white blindsiding fact,
Comes hurtling toward you out of the deep?…..”

Jenkins has to my knowledge never been to this island on GA/FL day, but it might do us good to remember that no matter what the outcome of the game Saturday, or the nonsensual things committed without regard to the consequences, anesthesization and denial are good remedies for whatever occurs here…and as usual, “what happens here, stays here.”



Bud
October 25, 2007

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