Songs I Love in 88 Words or Less: "The Ballad of El Goodo"

"The Ballad of El Goodo," Big Star

Oh, this song! Alex wrote it about the Vietnam war, and though I wouldn't pretend to know or understand it in that context, I do know that the world is full of El Goodos…whether they're planet-sized ones with lightning hands and the courage to speak for a nation, or smaller, quieter ones with much less significant impact and little power, whose most resilient act is to look at the world day after day with gentle and kind eyes.

P.S. President Clinton says it way better, but heck, he had more than 88 words : ) Please read his beautiful tribute to Muhammad Ali if you haven't: "In the second half of his life, he perfected gifts that we all have: Every single solitary one of us has gifts of mind and heart. It’s just that he found a way to release them in ways large and small."

Wordless Wednesday: It's Not You

The other day I found myself in one of those trigger finger-powered Facebook fogs, rifling through the photo albums on the page of a very casual acquaintance; I knew her awhile back on a fairly superficial level. (What?! You've never done that? Then you may be one of these!)

Anyway, I was amazed and intrigued at the quantity of photos she'd posted of herself, and the various reactions of her friends. It just makes you wonder, you know? That evening I had nightmares, an endless loop of photos of her, each the same but, no, a bit different--her head at a slightly altered angle, closer up, further away, taken in the sick bright sun that bounces off hot pavement, snapped in dressing-room light that amplifies your im/perfections, candy-colored positives & negatives, all screaming/creaming/dreaming, "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!"

If Narcissus were on Facebook:
Smiling this way, glancing that;
mobile uploading has made you tired!
Hit Sleep and dream
of your Wall photos.
"Like" "Like" "Like"