A Frog Symphony, God's Mercy, And Sweet Home Alabama

It’s fair to say that I like the sound of winter. Cold air seems to carry sound waves differently than warm air. I don’t know the physics of it but it must be true just as sound carries differently in water. I could google the science of it but why spoil the mystery. I could put a question mark on that last sentence for proper grammar but that would spoil the meaning. In fact when one writes one can do whatever one wants and punctuate or not at whim. Re-task words to suit one’s porpoise. Art is the same way. Freedom.

One of the most beautiful symphonies I’ve heard was performed by frogs. In a large meadow after a spring rain and they were making more frogs. Or discussing it. It was a large group discussion among many frogs. They would reach crescendos of chirpling in a sort of rhythm that became united and then separated in fractal deliciousness and occasionally fall silent. Then one frog would chirp and another across the meadow would chime in and then a thousand frogs would sing and echo through the valley and then they’d fall silent and the cycle would repeat. I forgot to mention the creek. There’s a creek in the middle of the meadow and in the pauses between choruses the little waterfalls set the stage for the next passage. All of this is true.

There’s so damn much ugliness in the world these days. The US government is on ugly-overdrive. Patriarchy is having an ugly-fit, grappling desperately to hold onto its ugly past. It won’t work. Women are announcing their candidacies for office in record numbers from sea to shining sea. May they win and may this ugliness wane for the love of god. God. There’s a fascinating term. The gross hypocrisy of the GOP and its professed allegiance to Jesus Christ, champion of the poor and downtrodden, while acting in stark opposite to what Jesus would ever do. I am so very glad the swine in Alabama LOST and that Doug Jones won. I liked Doug Jones’ victory speech too, quoting Martin Luther King, very promising.

I have friends who should run for office. I bet you do too. Maybe you should. Democracy will belong to those who show up. It will never ever be perfect. We make a terrible mistake if we want perfection. The whole point of Democracy is it’s an attempt at a most not bad society. If only corporations and villains show up, then its dystopia and misery and doom. Those things are bad. So yes, we should get rid of the Electoral College, a racist anachronism which disproportionately favors red states and reduces California voters’ influence in national campaigns. Yes, we should repeal “Citizens United” which is the precise opposite of its Orwellian name. Yes, gerrymandering and voter suppression and all these things can make the game seem hopeless, and we won’t fix all of them at once, we may not fix all of them at all, politics was and will remain corrupt and ugly, BUT! Doug Jones won. Doug Jones won because black women and men (and enough progressive white folks) in Alabama made him win. And that is NOT ugly! It’s beautiful, and it can be repeated in races throughout the country.

The mid-term elections are soon, now. Mercifully they are less than a year away. Amid all the disasters of the last two years, storms and fires and the sometimes overwhelming mounting horror of a government that has chosen to deny that climate change is upon us, while embracing white supremacy and misogyny and bigotry of every kind, oh, and while reaching into the pockets of working men and women, removing their wallets and handing them to the very goddamn super-rich, while doubling down on fossil fuels and making us an embarrassment and pariah on the world stage, IT IS PRETTY EASY TO FALL INTO DESPAIR! But we don’t have to, and we ought not to. And I for one am going to think of the voters of Alabama, God bless their sweet hearts, the ones who rejected every foul thing embodied in Roy Moore and those who endorsed him, this in the state where much of the civil rights and voting rights movement played out and people died for the right to vote in the 1960s, yes I am going to think of them, when I need a dose of positivity and optimism, and I am going to CHOOSE to be active and participate and live and give and thrive, because this world belongs to all of us, and we can make it better for ourselves and each other.

That and I’m going to release a song in the next few days for the holidays. I didn’t do any Christmas shopping this year, I made a song and I’m giving it to all my friends and fam near and far by means of Interwebs. I’m excited to share it. It has “Love” in the title, which will surprise no one who knows me. It also contains rock and roll.

Them’s all my thoughts this morning, just felt like sharing. Run for office! I’ll vote for you! Let’s do this.

Here’s a porpoise.

And what the hell, this, because hell yes.

Author: Eric Din

Eric makes songs, records, websites, and little forts for cats to play in. Founder/lifer in The UPTONES, guitarist, songwriter, guitar teacher and music curator, Eric blogs at ericdin.com except when he doesn't.