Gnomusy, "Dolmen Ridge"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
"A Look to the Heavens"
"No, hamburgers are not this big. What is pictured is a sharp telescopic view of a magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628, a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy.
The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk.”
"One Summer Night..."
"One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will."
- Rachel Carson
Greg Hunter, "2022 Wild Unpredictable Year – Craig Hemke"
"2022 Wild Unpredictable Year – Craig Hemke"
by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Financial writer, market analyst and precious metals expert Craig Hemke says there is only one certain thing you can say about the economy in 2022, and that is “Don’t buy the lie, the Fed does not have inflation under control.” Everything else is a huge wild card. We start with the stack of unpredictable things that Hemke sees, and he explains, “I think, economically, you can tell where we are headed, but anyone who can predict what 2022 is going to be like politically is crazy. This is going to be a wild unpredictable year. It will be volatile. If anything, this is an election year in Congress. All of the House and a third of the Senate and control of that agenda is up for grabs. You know we are going back down the path of allegedly ‘peaceful demonstrations’ that come with it.
Then you’ve got inflation, supply chain disruptions and all these empty shelves. What if that gets worse? Then you have societal disruptions from hungry people. Then everybody around the world has been sold this story that the vaccines are going to keep you out of the hospital, and they are going to keep the disease mild. All that is being walked back now. What if it turns out the vax has done more harm than good? God only knows how the whole world will revolt. If it is discovered in 2022 that the vaccines globally have done more harm than good, which is entirely possibly because it is new technology being used for the first time. If it turns out that way, people are going to freak out. If there are millions of people marching in the streets, the governments are not going to say, oh well, we screwed up. You think they are cracking down now? What do you think the crackdowns are going to look like nine months from now?”
So, it’s safe to say the entire CV19 vax and virus story is going to be the wildest of wild cards. What Hemke can predict is the actions of the Fed in terms of fighting inflation and ending the easy money policies. Considering the trillions of dollars in exponential money creation and debt, can the Fed make a wrong move and blow up the system cutting off liquidity and raising rates? Hemke says, “Could they lose control? Yes. Will they? Well, not yet, and that is all part of the challenge in forecasting, and that is you don’t know when that rubber band will reach that breaking point. We’ve got $30 trillion in debt, and they have been able to reduce the interest rate paid on that debt. The interest on that national debt is about $500 billion with an average interest rate of 1.6%. So, when people say interest rates are going to go to 3% or 4%, what’s the interest going to cost - $1.2 trillion? The whole thing spins than much out of control. They cannot, cannot afford for that to happen. Don’t buy the lie that the Fed has this under control and they are going to raise interest rates.” The bottom line is Hemke says expect more inflation because the Fed cannot raise interest rates to fight it."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Craig Hemke of the popular website TFMetalsReport.com. (There is much more in the 43 min interview.)
"Struggling To Survive; Wages And Savings Crushed; Stock Market More Important Than You"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 1/12/22:
"Struggling To Survive; Wages And Savings Crushed;
Stock Market More Important Than You"
Celente & The Judge, "Big Brother's Watching You, Our Rights are Being Stolen"
Full screen recommended.
Celente & The Judge,
"Big Brother's Watching You, Our Rights are Being Stolen"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
"Highest Goods Inflation Since 1975"
"Highest Goods Inflation Since 1975"
by Brian Maher
"Today we are thunderstruck, lightningstruck, tonguestruck and dumbstruck… That is because - by a marvelous miracle of God - the economic experts have finally struck bull’s-eye. They had divined that December’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) would register 7% year over year. Word came issuing from the United States Department of Labor this morning. December’s CPI did in fact register 7% year over year.
This 7% acceleration represents the greatest yearly consumer price inflation since 1982… 39 years distant. Reports CNBC: "Inflation plowed ahead at its fastest 12-month pace in nearly 40 years during December, according to a closely watched gauge the Labor Department released Wednesday."
The Consumer Price Index, a metric that measures costs across dozens of items, increased 7%, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics… Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting the gauge to increase 7% on an annual basis… "The annual move was the fastest increase since June 1982 and comes amid a shortage of goods and workers and on the heels of unprecedented cash flowing through the U.S. economy from Congress and the Federal Reserve."
Highest Goods Inflation Since 1975: Adds Mr. Brian Price, director of investment management at Commonwealth Financial Network: "The December CPI report of a 7% increase over the last 12 months will be shocking for some investors as we haven’t seen a number that high [in nearly 40 years]. The cost of services increased 3.7% year over year. That is the highest rate since January 2007. The cost of goods - meantime - sped ahead 10.7% year over year - the liveliest pace since May 1975. Nearly 47 years!
Let us now heap Pelion upon Ossa, let us sketch the scene in colors darker yet… We learn today that real average hourly earnings - that is, inflation-adjusted hourly earnings - decreased 2.4% year over year. The average man is going backward.
Incidentally, this time last year 1% of small businesses claimed inflation represented their primary menace. One year later? Twenty-two percent of small businesses presently claim inflation represents their primary menace.
Stocks Shrugged: How did the stock market take today’s news? It took the news standing up, rather easily. The Dow Jones gained 38 points on the day. The S&P 500 added 13, the Nasdaq Composite 34 points of its own.
Inflation is widely considered a menace to stocks. Why weren’t stocks routed today? The aforesaid Mr. Price: "However, this print was largely anticipated by many, and we can see that reaction in the bond market as longer-term interest rates are declining so far this morning."
Long-term interest rates maintained their retreat clear through to closing whistle… "The 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.74% at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The identical 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.72% at 4:30 p.m. Eastern." But why? Barreling inflation generally sends bond yields jumping.
A Refresher on Bonds: Recall: Bond prices and bond yields represent opposing ends of a playground seesaw. If bond prices rise, bond yields fall. If bond prices fall, bond yields rise. Longer-term bonds are particularly sensitive to inflation’s corrosions. Inflation munches through the value of their bonds as a termite munches through spruce. Ten years of inflation will reduce their bonds to sawdust.
Thus long-term bondholders demand a sort of insurance. That is, they demand higher bond yields to compensate them for the termite’s mischief, to keep ahead of inflation. The longer dated the bond, the more compensation they demand. A 10-year Treasury bond yielding 7% might reel you in, for example. But what if inflation averaged 8% across the same period? Inflation would gobble your 7% yield - and some more. You would require a 9% yield just to paddle ahead of inflation.
Meantime, you may balk at a 10-year Treasury bond yielding 3%. But if inflation runs at 2%… then your 3% Treasury yields you 1%. A slender gain, yes. But you escape with a whole skin - and a bit of blubber into the bargain. Your 3% 10-year Treasury, under these terms, infinitely bests a 7% Treasury if inflation is 8%.
With this brief reminder of bond dynamics in back of us… we must ask why 10-year Treasury yields went sliding down on today’s inflationary news. Since early December, 10-year yields had been galloping ahead at the briskest pace in 20 years. They attained a peak 1.78% on Jan. 10. These past two days they have lost their zeal. And so we wonder: Perhaps the bond market rejects the going wisdom that inflation will persist?
Yet it is easier to ask the question than to answer the question. That is because the Federal Reserve’s massive mischief has distorted the bond market out of semblance. Its signals are not as true as they once were.
Let us assume for the moment that inflation is up and doing, that it is up upon its legs and on the stretch. What is the Federal Reserve to do?
The Lowest Real Rates Since the 1970s: It cannot permit inflation to go amok - if only to salvage a rag of institutional self-respect. It is tasked, after all, with maintaining price stability. Seven of the last nine CPI reports have exceeded consensus estimates. People are beginning to talk. And so the central bank must act - appearances must be maintained.
Prognosticators estimate the Federal Reserve will impose perhaps four rate increases this year. They would begin their work at a very, very low level - zero. But the true interest rate, the real rate, the inflation-adjusted rate, is far lower than zero. The real interest rate is the nominal interest rate, inflation subtracted. The federal funds rate has been riveted in at zero.
Yet headline inflation goes along at 7%. Now go ahead and subtract the inflation rate from the nominal rate. You learn that the real federal funds rate is negative 7% (0% minus 7%). Not since the 1970s have real interest rates plunged to such impossible depths. Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid, here summarized by Zero Hedge: "The real fed funds rate in December was around minus 7%, which for reference is lower than at any point in the 1970s, when the lowest the fed funds rate got in real terms was around minus 5%."
Negative interest rates? Here you have negative interest rates - and in heaps. Again, what will the Federal Reserve do? How many rate increases will it declare this year? How will it attack its balance sheet? We do not know. Yet this we do know: We are profoundly, resolutely, unequivocally with Rabobank’s Michael Every: “The Fed will be wrong, as usual. The only question is how bad the damage is as a result.”
Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! The Federal Reserve Is Involved In Yet Another Grand Deception, You Need To Know This"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/12/22:
"Alert! The Federal Reserve Is Involved In Yet Another
Grand Deception, You Need To Know This"
"We Are All..."
"You’ve got to be crazy! It’s too late to be sane, too late.
You’ve got to go full tilt bozo...
‘Cause you’re only given a little spark of madness...
and if you lose that, you’re nothing."
- Robin Williams
"Lifes Impermanence..."
"Lifes impermanence, I realized, is what makes every
single day so precious. It's what shapes our time here.
It's what makes it so important that not a single moment be wasted."
- Wes Moore
"SARS-COV-2 Vaccines and Neurodegenerative Disease" (Excerpt)
"SARS-COV-2 Vaccines and
Neurodegenerative Disease" (Excerpt)
By Stephanie Seneff and GreenMedInfo
"Since December 2020, when several novel unprecedented vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 began to be approved for emergency use, there has been a worldwide effort to get these vaccines into the arms of as many people as possible as fast as possible. These vaccines have been developed “at warp speed,” given the urgency of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. Most governments have embraced the notion that these vaccines are the only path towards resolution of this pandemic, which is crippling the economies of many countries."
This is a lengthy, highly technical and informative article that
I highly recommend. Please view the complete article here:
○
Free Download: "The Vaccine Death Report"
by David John Sorenson and Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, MD
"Purpose: The purpose of this report is to document how all over the world millions of people have died, and hundreds of millions of serious adverse events have occurred, after injections with the experimental mRNA gene therapy. We also reveal the real risk of an unprecedented genocide.
Facts: We aim to only present scientific facts and stay away from unfounded claims. The data is clear and verifiable. Over one hundred references can be found for all presented information, which is provided as a starting point for further investigation.
Complicity: The data suggests that we may currently be witnessing the greatest organized mass murder in the history of our world. The severity of this situation compels us to ask this critical question: will we rise to the defense of billions of innocent people? Or will we permit personal profit over justice, and be complicit? Networks of lawyers all over the world are preparing class-action lawsuits to prosecute all who are serving this criminal agenda. To all who have been complicit so far, we say: There is still time to turn and choose the side of truth. Please make the right choice."
Freely download "The Vaccine Death Report" here:
○
"Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi: Organs Of Dead Vaccinated
Proves Auto Immune Attack"
"Shopping At Big Lots! No Toilet Paper! - Empty Shelves! - What Now!?"
Adventures with Danno, AM 1/12/22:
"Shopping At Big Lots! No Toilet Paper! -
Empty Shelves! - What Now!?"
"In today's vlog we are shopping at Big Lots to find another grocery
option as stores across the country are struggling to get in products."
Gregory Mannarino, "The Middle Class Wipeout Is Accelerating; The Economy Is Collapsing"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 1/12/22:
"The Middle Class Wipeout Is Accelerating;
The Economy Is Collapsing"
○
Related:
"The Financial Headlines Keep Getting More Ridiculous"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 1/12/22:
"The Financial Headlines Keep Getting More Ridiculous"
"From the Fed to JP Morgan you can’t get away from the ridiculous headlines. The same news sources are giving conflicting stories on the good news and bad news of the economy."
"Acceptance..."
"Acceptance is a crucial step forward for those who prefer the idea of living this life over simply existing within it. Accept all that you've said and what you've done, because you cannot change your past. Accept the idea of the unknown, because the future is the unknown waiting patiently to reveal itself. Accept the person you have become thus far in your journey, because you are the only person who will be there with you when you finish it. Do all of this so that you may never find yourself having to accept regret that haunts you at two a.m., leaving you sweaty and broken hearted. All you have is this minute; not this hour, or this day, or this year. Live in this minute so that you won't get stuck simply existing with your guilty past, or with nothing but anxiety for the future."
- Margaret E. Rise
"In Human Society.."
"When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair."
- Nadezhda Mandelstam
"Government’s Grip is Tightening - 15 Signs Of An Abusive Relationship"
Full screen recommended.
Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity,
"Government’s Grip is Tightening -
15 Signs Of An Abusive Relationship"
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
“It’s Like A Soviet Store”: Americans Are Absolutely Horrified By Empty Shelves From Coast To Coast"
Full screen recommended.
“It’s Like A Soviet Store”: Americans Are Absolutely
Horrified By Empty Shelves From Coast To Coast"
by Michael Snyder
A year ago, we were promised that the Biden regime would be leading us into a new golden era of prosperity. Obviously, that has not happened. Instead, we are dealing with bare store shelves and painfully high prices from coast to coast. Many are comparing this crisis to the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s, but we didn’t have persistent shortages for months on end back then. At this point, nobody can deny what is happening. Even the Washington Post is admitting that “social media is swamped with pictures of empty grocery shelves”. The Biden administration promised to resolve our supply chain problems, but they just keep getting worse. When Fox News asked one grocery shopper about the empty shelves, he delivered a chilling response that many of us will not forget any time soon: “It’s like a Soviet store during 1981. It’s horrible.”
Prior to the pandemic, many Americans believed that it was impossible for something like this to ever happen in the United States of America. But it is happening.
Another shopper that was interviewed by Fox News actually used the word “starving” in his response… "Larry, another D.C. shopper, told Fox News: “Whatever it is, I know they need to hurry up and get this straightened out because people will be starving. It’s going to get rough if it keeps on continuing like that.”
Multiple shoppers rattled off a litany of groceries they couldn’t find, ranging from milk to beverages to produce. “Everything, meat, egg, dairy, certain breads were out, most vegetables, it was all fresh items,” one man said as he left a Giant grocery store.
Full screen recommended.
No, nobody in this country is going to be “starving” in the near future, but without a doubt things are starting to get really crazy. In fact, things are so bad that even CNN has been forced to admit that our store shelves are being “wiped clean”… "Grocery store shelves across America are wiped clean, and they’re staying empty as stores struggle to quickly restock everyday necessities such as milk, bread, meat, canned soups and cleaning products. Disgruntled shoppers have unleashed their frustration on social media over the last several days, posting photos on Twitter of bare shelves at Trader Joe’s locations, Giant Foods and Publix stores, among many others."
If fear of Omicron can do this, what would our country look like during a major long-term national emergency? You might want to start thinking about that.
Grocery chains are very much aware that a wave of “panic buying” has erupted around the nation, and so they are trying to do what they can to keep it from getting even worse… "Grocery stores certainly are aware of the empty shelves, Lempert said, and they are trying to mitigate panic buying, which only worsens it the situation. One strategy: Fanning out products. They’re doing this by putting out both limited varieties and limited quantities of each product in an attempt to prevent hoarding and stretch out their supplies between deliveries." But fanning out products isn’t really going to fool anyone. We can all see what is going on, and all of the photos that are going up on social media are just going to fuel the frenzy even more.
The good news is that at least things are better in this country than they are in much of the rest of the globe. For example, people in Cuba are now waiting up to 11 hours in line just to get some food… “I spent almost all night here just to buy something. It is not easy, it is a big sacrifice just to be able to eat,” shopper Edelvis Miranda, 47, told AFP at a market in Havana last week. The homemaker had taken her place in the queue at about 1:00 am, and finally left around 11 hours later, just before noon."
So be thankful for the blessings that we still have. Hopefully we will get some short-term relief and store shelves will start to look better once this wave of Omicron fades and warmer temperatures arrive.
But nothing is going to keep inflation from continuing to spiral out of control. According to CNBC, the median income in this country has actually fallen over the past two years even as the cost of living has risen substantially… "As consumers pay more for everything from groceries to gasoline, household income is failing to keep pace with a higher overall cost of living, according to recent reports. Over the past two years, median income fell 3% while the cost of living rose nearly 7%, due, in part, to rising housing and medical costs."
In an attempt to keep making ends meet, U.S. consumers have now gone into more debt than ever before… The average U.S. household with debt now owes $155,622, or more than $15 trillion altogether, including debt from credit cards, mortgages, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, student loans and other household obligations - up 6.2% from a year ago.
In America today, most people are just barely scraping by from month to month. Living paycheck to paycheck is not a good place to be, but that is reality for the vast majority of our population. So when economic conditions get extremely bad in this country, most Americans are not going to have any sort of a financial cushion to fall back on. And since the vast majority of our population is not “prepping” in any way, shape or form, any sort of long-term food shortage would get exceedingly painful very, very quickly.
For years, I have been encouraging my readers to make common sense preparations for the time when economic chaos would rock our nation. Now that time has arrived, and most of our fellow citizens are completely and utterly unprepared for what is happening. But if you think that this is the worst that can happen to us, just wait, because the truth is that what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg."
“You Have No Money Left; Banks Are Ripping You Off; IRS Issues”
Jeremiah Babe, PM 1/11/22:
“You Have No Money Left; Banks Are Ripping You Off; IRS Issues”
Gerald Celente, "Chock Full Of Nuts" - "Trends Journal"
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, "Chock Full Of Nuts" - "Trends Journal"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
"Food Industry Insiders Are Warning That Supplies Will Get Even Tighter In The Weeks Ahead"
Full screen recommended.
"Food Industry Insiders Are Warning That Supplies
Will Get Even Tighter In The Weeks Ahead"
by Epic Economist
"This is where we are again. In December, the US government stood in front of the American people and bluntly announced that they had defeated the supply chain crisis. But of course, now it is clear that they have lied to us once again. We have been facing persistent shortages for months on end. Some of them emerged during the first wave of panic buying in 2020 and were never resolved up until this point. And now, the emergence of a new variant and the threat of lockdowns and businesses shutdowns are pushing things to an entirely new level.
US consumers have been increasingly frustrated with the bare shelves they see, and many have resorted to social media to expose the situation of their local supermarkets. From coast to coast, shortages continue to spread at an alarming pace all across the country. But our leaders keep insisting that this is just a "temporary" crisis that will be gone soon. That was the same thing they said when nationwide shortages first began to pop up in early 2020. So we shouldn't hold our breaths waiting for them to fix these bottlenecks and turn things around because that probably won't happen.
The truth is that executives and experts in the food industry are sounding the alarm over more shortages and rising prices in the coming weeks as food supplies get tighter and tighter. For instance, in a recent interview with Fox News, the billionaire supermarket CEO John Catsimatidis is alerting that more supply chain disruptions are occurring as we speak, and food retailers are going to pass along increased transportation and logistics costs to consumers in the weeks ahead. The United Refining Company owner revealed that The United States, in particular, is seeing the price of a wide range of products, such as eggs, poultry, and beef soar to record levels because of low supply and high demand.
Egg Innovations CEO John Bruunquel echoed Catsimatidis’ sentiment and cautioned that a surge in demand coinciding with labor, freight, and vendor issues is about to hamper the national egg supply and push prices to skyrocket. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last month, the price of beef jumped nearly 21 compared to a year prior, while pork and chicken prices rose 16.8 and 9.2 percent, respectively. A new report published by ZeroHedge has compiled dozens of photos that Americans have been posting on social media to expose the bare shelves they're witnessing in recent days.
ZeroHedge analysts reminded of the President's statement issued right before Christmas eve, declaring that his administration’s efforts to eliminate supply-chain bottlenecks ahead of the holiday season had succeeded. "Ten days into the new year, we can firmly say that is not the case," they wrote. If only we had enough workers to keep things running nice and smooth in our supply chains, this crisis could be solved much faster than anticipated. But that's not the case. In industry after industry, a huge number of workers seems to have disappeared from the system, and their absence is causing a myriad of problems.
Many people out there want to believe that a prosperous future is awaiting us, particularly considering that the last couple of years have been extremely distressing. A new poll analyzed the words Americans used to describe what they experienced over the past 12 months. 23% of the respondents used the terms "awful, terrible, or bad", while 12% described it as "chaos, confusion, or turmoil", 11% said it was "challenging, hard, or rough", 6% saw it as a "disaster, train wreck, or catastrophe".
While more and more shelves go empty, once again, the President's job approval rating continues to sink. People are extremely dissatisfied with unbearable shelter, power, and food inflation. Our population wants and needs the supply chain crisis to be resolved, inflation to fade away, and life to return to the way that it used to be. Sadly, none of these things are within our reach, and it has become exceedingly clear that our leaders are utterly and completely incapable of defeating our problems, controlling the virus outbreak, and readjusting monetary policy to start putting our country back on track.
At this point, it honestly seems like they do not care about fixing the economy. And if you think that things are chaotic now, just wait a few more months and you'll see real chaos. If you are waiting for the government to save us from this mess, you are going to be waiting forever. Decades of very reckless decisions have brought us where we are now, and it would take a miracle to turn things around."
Gregory Mannarino, "Today The Fed. Set The Stage For The Economy And Markets: This Is What You Need To Know"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/11/22:
"Today The Fed. Set The Stage For The Economy
And Markets: This Is What You Need To Know"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex.
About five light-years "tall", the dark cloud is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the glowing red emission nebula IC 434. Stars are forming within the dark cloud. Contrasting blue reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star, is at the lower left. The gorgeous color image combines both narrowband and broadband images recorded using three different telescopes.”
Chet Raymo, “A Sense Of Place”
“A Sense Of Place”
by Chet Raymo
“It would be hard to find two writers more different than Eudora Welty and Edward Abbey. Welty was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of stories and novels who lived all her life in Jackson, Mississippi, in the house in which she was born, the beloved spinster aunt of American letters. Abbey was a hard-drinking, butt-kicking nature writer and conservationist best known for his books on the American Southwest. Both writers are favorites of mine. Both were great champions of place. I always wondered what it would have been like if they got together. As far as I know, that never happened. But let’s imagine a conversation. I have taken extracts from Welty’s essay “Some Notes on River Country” (1944) and from Abbey’s essay “The Great American Desert (1977) and interleaved them.
“This little chain of lost towns between Vicksburg and Natchez.”
“This desert, all deserts, any deserts.”
“On the shady stream banks hang lady’s eardrops, fruits and flowers dangling pale jade. The passionflower puts its tendrils where it can, its strange flowers of lilac rays with their little white towers shining out, or its fruit, the maypop, hanging.”
“Oily growths like the poison ivy – oh yes, indeed – that flourish in sinister profusion on the dank walls above the quicksand down those corridors of gloom and labyrinthine monotony that men call canyons.”
“All creepers with trumpets and panicles of scarlet and yellow cling to the treetops. There is a vine that grows to great heights, with heart-shaped leaves as big and soft as summer hats.”
“Everything in the desert either stings, stabs, stinks, or sticks. You will find the flora here as venomous, hooked, barbed, thorny, prickly, needled, saw-toothed, hairy, stickered, mean, bitter, sharp, wiry and fierce as the animals.”
“Too pretty for any harsh fate, with its great mossy trees and old camellias.”
“Something about the desert inclines all living things to harshness and acerbity.”
“The clatter of hoofs and the bellow of boats have gone. The Old Natchez Trace has sunk out of use. The river has gone away and left the landings. But life does not forsake any place.”
“In the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix will get you if the sun, snakes, bugs, and arthropods don’t. In the Mojave Desert, it’s Las Vegas. Up north in the Great Basin Desert, your heart will break, seeing the strip mines open up and the power plants rise…”
“The Negro Baptist church, weathered black with a snow-white door, has red hens in the yard. The old galleried stores are boarded up. The missing houses were burned – they were empty, and the little row of Negro inhabitants have carried them off for firewood.”
“…the highway builders, land developers, weapons testers, power producers, clear cutters, oil drillers, dam beavers, subdividers.”
“Eventually you see people, of course. Women have little errands, and the old men play checkers at a table in the front of the one open store. And the people’s faces are good.”
“Californicating.”
“To go there, you start west from Port Gibson. Postmen would arrive here blowing their horns like Gabriel, after riding three hundred wilderness miles from Tennessee.”
“Why go into the desert? Really, why do it? That sun, roaring at you all day long. The fetid, tepid, vapid little water holes full of cannibal beetles, spotted toads, horsehair worms, liver flukes. Why go there?”
“I have felt many times there is a sense of place as powerful as if it were visible and walking and could touch me. A place that ever was lived in is like a fire that never goes out. Sometimes it gives out glory, sometimes its little light must be sought out to be seen.”
“Why the desert, when you could be camping by a stream of pure Rocky Mountain spring water. We have centipedes, millipedes, tarantulas, black widows, brown recluses, Gila monsters, the deadly poisonous coral snakes, and the giant hairy desert scorpions. Plus an immense variety of near-infinite number of ants, midges, gnats, bloodsucking flies, and blood-guzzling mosquitoes.”
“Much beauty has gone, many little things of life. To light up the night there are no mansions, no celebrations. Wild birds fly now at the level where people on boat deck once were strolling and talking.”
“In the American Southwest, only the wilderness is worth saving.”
“There is a sense of place there, to keep life from being extinguished, like a cup of the hands to hold a flame.”
“A friend and I took a walk up beyond Coconino County, Arizona. I found an arrow sign, pointed to the north. Nothing of any unusual interest that I could see – only the familiar sun-blasted sandstone, a few scrubby clumps of blackbush and prickly pear, a few acres of nothing where only a lizard could graze. I studied the scene with care. But there was nothing out there. Nothing at all. Nothing but the desert. Nothing but the silent world.”
“Perhaps it is the sense of place that gives us the belief that passionate things, in some essence, endure.”
“In my case, it was love at first sight. The kind of love that makes a man selfish, possessive, irritable…”
“New life will be built upon these things.”
“…an unrequited and excessive love.”
“It is this.”
“That’s why.”
The Poet: Theodore Roethke, “The Geranium”
“The Geranium”
“When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,
She looked so limp and bedraggled,
So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,
Or a wizened aster in late September,
I brought her back in again
For a new routine -
Vitamins, water, and whatever
Sustenance seemed sensible
At the time: she’d lived
So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer,
Her shriveled petals falling
On the faded carpet, the stale
Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves.
(Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.)
The things she endured!
The dumb dames shrieking half the night
Or the two of us, alone, both seedy,
Me breathing booze at her,
She leaning out of her pot toward the window.
Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me -
And that was scary -
So when that snuffling cretin of a maid
Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can,
I said nothing.
But I sacked the presumptuous hag the next week,
I was that lonely.”
- Theodore Roethke
Free Download: Jiddu Krishnamurti, “The Book of Life”
"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it.
That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies,
that is why you must sing and dance,
and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Freely download “The Book of Life”, by Jiddu Krishnamurti:
"A Long March..."
"The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instill faith in times of despair."
- Bertrand Russell
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