California Times with Guy W. Meyer, Jr.
Uncommon Views from California
Saturday, August 12, 2023
The Bar Next Door
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Kansas Sunset ....
What
if I / you / we made all the difference
in the world? God!
I say that as I look out at these mythic towering Clouds stretch across the
plains, it’s 7:39 PM
on Amtrak Train #4, the South West Chief, enroute from LA to Chicago. Looking
across the plains from the observation car and I imagine some 150 years ago
some pioneer wagon train looking back at this
primal landscape. In an age with no Internet, no none of that could even be
conceived of not the slightest notion (in my conception)..
Just a world of intense
life, life decisions against the backdrop of the immensity of … God! … or
the Mystery of Life.
Just like today. Just like it ever was. In the observation car. Rain has
sprinkled against the west facing windows, a little orange and yellow of the setting of the sun also in the windows, if I turn and crane my neck backwards left
about where the Amish woman who is reading a book wearing her white bonnet and
100 year old style wear. Directly behind me the party of three happy Black
women slamming down Dominos with some soul
music playing ….
And now the setting sun on my left has
come shining clear through the clouds. They moved to give room right on the
horizon and the light shining through the raindrops on the train windows and I
mention that to the Amish woman and the three woman whose game is over but they
pause to look…. 'Isn’t that beautiful!' And take pictures on their I Phone and
the Amish woman stands and stares through the golden rain drops and yes
imagine… A few lightening strikes off
to the dark right side….
And I look back and that sun send off
rays of gold and hohum just another sunset and as they say someone's sunset is
someone else’s sunrise.
Let me see what was I going to say
about the world ?.. or maybe just the beautiful events of the day.
Just another day hoping to emerge from
tired brain and innerspection… and it will have to do because I didn’t go
beyond little vignettes of cool humanity or else the desire to run from the
aforementioned humanity. As I have finally done the modern soul music sort of a
rap thing with it’s rhythmic bang … bang just too much and I retreated to the
far corner facing the still glowing post sun fading glow…
Remembering hours before... Albuquerque we had 30 minutes to stretch and
to hustle down a classic Albuquerque street scene in old town. What’s a classic
Albuquerque street scene? just old paved over America Midday in May passing
some street people with their full carts and their sad lives past large parking
lots with no cars some newish apartment complex.. probably mixed ‘affordable’
housing Hah! What do I know? I ducked into the Silver Market off of Silver
Street see if I can get some improvement on the Train Snack Bar Food…
They ran out of their Hebrew Kosher Hot
Dogs they ran out of their Sabra Hummus and Pretzels ..they being Amtrak… but
back at Silver Street I could see this was not the greatest level of gourmet
choice but a 2.99 Tuna Fish Sandwich looked like a deal… and a few other Kickory BarBQ chips .. make that Hickory but Kickory sounds good to… Anyhow
just a touch of human … in line with the checker dude short hair but tattooed
pretty strongly over his arms, maybe in his 40’s I mention “hey let me grab one
of these papers find out what is going on in Albuquerque” Newspapers. He laughs… “Ha! Nothing!” Then I
decide to tell him about the big Destroy
Fascism graffitti I saw as I was pondering the absurd mess of America with our
parking lots and wealth and consumer and loss from Nature and I laugh “Fascism?!
Hah! What a joke, take a look at our
lives. What is this Ism we Is? “
Anyways my new good friend in the Check Out moment goes yeah ‘ that’s our Millenials!’ Yup and me a
deadbeat Boomer still hoping for some kind of redemption or at least the
cojones to laugh out loud and scare my own Blues away on any old day. ( I can
do that! But a real good laugh ahh a great laugh!! That would be good.)