De Mortuis, Nil Nisi Bonum

Neil and his band mate Leighton are contemplating the production of a podcast entitled "Speaking Ill of the Dead" in which they challenge Denver Uber drivers to defend their apparent fascination with all things Grateful Dead.

Although I am sympathetic, I have a small rebuttal.

 

Dear Neil

With respect to “Speaking Ill of the Dead”, you well know that no one who knows me would ever place me in the camp of the first generation of Deadheads.  Yet, every endeavor of any lasting repute must have some foundation, some basis, some work of merit, that defines its reputation, no matter how thin that reputation grows over the years.
For the Grateful Dead that work of merit is “Truckin’”.  Yes, it is just another song about a traveling band and drugs, albeit from a uniquely told point of view with a weary inevitability about it.  But in the middle of the long mumbled rambling over the demise of Sweet Jane, the defining hook comes crashing in.  Loud, high, and clear comes the chorus.

 “Sometimes the light is all shining on me;

   Other times I can barely see.
   Lately it occurs to me,
   What a long strange trip it’s been.”

You can view this as simply an expositional statement on the highs and lows of drug abuse, which it is.  But, more importantly, it is a well-versed metaphor for life, with or without drugs, life pure or impure, the wheel of fortune, not as your Grandma Jan understands the Wheel of Fortune, but as the Greeks understood it, as Baby Face Nelson understands it in “O Brother”, strapped helplessly to the inexorable rise and fall of one’s own destiny.  It is the tide, daylight and darkness, the seasons, the joys and sorrows, the loves and losses, the ups and the downs of daily life, of any life, on which all art, all life, is tethered.  The summation is no less metaphysical.  Step back from the spinning, it says, and appreciate it, accepting that our journey from the past to the future is wonderfully strange.  Or, as Seuss would have it, “From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!”

There, I’ve said my peace.  You can go back, now, to listening to The Decemberists.

Love,
Dad

 

I was in Oklahoma last week on business.  Nice state - I lived there for 10 years.  They have some of the best road signs in the nation.  My old favorite used to be "Do Not Drive Into Smoke".  It made you keep an eye out, scan the horizon for, perhaps, telltale wisps of chimney smoke in the fall and winter.  Of course the sign did not tell you what to do if you ran across some smoke.  Stop right there on the turnpike and put your blinkers on?  Pull off to the shoulder and let all the scofflaws drive on into the smoke?  Cross the median and drive back the other way?  Or what would happen if you are sitting there, stopped, and the smoke drifts across your car?  Are you violating the traffic code sitting there?  Can you be ticketed?  Is it illegal to drive Out of the smoke in that situation?  What do you do with a sign that leaves more questions than answers?

I didn't see any "Do Not Drive Into Smoke" signs last week.  They have been replaced with "Bridge Ices Before Road".  A warning with no actionable advice.  If the Road is icy, well, then I suppose common sense tells you the Bridge should be icy, too.  If the Road is not icy, well, then I still have no clue about the condition of the Bridge.  The Bridge may or may not be icy.  It's a warning perilously close to crying wolf every mile or so down the Interstate.  At lease the Smoke sign gave you an imperative instruction to act upon. 

But my favorite Oklahoma road sign is "Damaged Guard Rail Ahead".  Oh, no!  If your planning on hitting this guard rail, don't.  It's ALREADY damaged!  Go hit another guardrail instead!  What in the world is a person supposed to do with this warning? 

The best sign of the week, however, was not provided by ODOT.  It was on the side of an eighteen-wheeler with Ontario plates.  It read, "Where Honesty & Integrity Matters".  Where, apparently, grammar does not.