During a brief respite she asked me what I thought was going to happen to the economy. Try that one in a couple of sentences. Fortunately the conversation turned to Tiger Woods and his spectacular down win in the U.S. Open over the weekend and into Monday. We both prayed that his leg injury would not be lasting. I found out later that he’s out for the season.
As for the economy, that will take more thought. My one observation was that inflation is a cyclical condition that people experience when their government “prints” more money than it can back up. I’m not sure my readers are in a mood for such stuff after my discourses in recent weeks on terrorism, getting out of Iraq, the energy outlook, and whether capitalism is working the way it’s supposed to. The Roundup probably has an audience that prefers local history and travel columns.
A conversation did take place at the end of my cleaning that was reflective of today’s society. The dentist told me she would be lost without her daily newspaper, and I readily agreed that I felt the same way. Turns out we both grew up in families where the newspaper played an important role, both as a source of information and basis for social intercourse (i.e. informal conversation) with other people.
“Do you read the newspaper?” her young assistant was asked. A shake of the head.
“Where do you find out what’s happening?’
“The Internet.”
How sad, thought the two members of the Greatest and Baby Boomer generations.
After all that, topped by a discussion about how soon I should return for another checkup and cleaning, I left, forgetting to pay (I don’t have dental insurance). They know I’ll be back. Maybe we can discuss Africa.
There are some weeks when a Rolltop inspiration is slow in coming to this writer, so the temptation to get involved in something controversial is strong. As I was doing my morning stretching this week I tossed several ideas around, some based on current events. These include tomatoes, gay marriage, cost of medical care, global warming, inflation, welfare and stem cell research.
I can’t resist some comment about the hottest topic in California this week, and I don’t mean the state budget.
Gay marriage has been overshadowing the falling housing market this week. Counties began issuing marriage licenses under a recent ruling by the state supreme court, amid a great deal of public controversy over morality, values, tradition and a threat to our way of life.
Blame all these controversies on our stilted lexicon. We need another word for “marriage” that doesn’t throw people off. It’s bad enough what has happened to the word “gay” over the decades. There was a day when a “gay marriage”, like the term “cool,” meant something entirely different. Blame it on generational distortion. It worries me that our children today will look upon historical references to the nineteenth century era of the “Gay Nineties” with confusion. Back in my college days, we looked upon the annual spring “Gaieties” as something full of fun and joy. I wonder if they call it something else now.
Following that line of thought, even the word “sex” has a variety of meanings in our society. It can mean gender, procreation or recreation. The word shows up on census forms and patient’s information sheets at the doctor’s office. What a temptation it is to answer yes or no. Even an answer of M and F can be translated by a fun lover as “maybe” and “frequently.” In today’s society they should probably add “don’t know.”
To confound the situation is the reality that it doesn’t even take sex to have babies anymore.
I wish I knew the French language better. I’m sure they have words for these things that don’t raise so many red flags. Unfortunately, English is not a Romantic language.
Just so you know, I could have discussed Sudan and Darfur after listening to another intellectual talk this week. They have everything, genocide, religious conflict, oil, civil war and starvation.
The good news this week is that tomatoes are coming back to markets and salad bars.
Copyright 2008 Champion Newspapers - Published June 21, 2008
0 comments:
Post a Comment