Monday, April 21, 2008

American Dream

There seems to be a new pessimism afoot throughout the land. A state that feels as if we were all in some free fall- not falling, but not flying, either. Patty and I went to the movies and saw "the Visitor" yesterday. (If you want to see this film, don't read any more- I'm going to give the "ending" away- sort off.) It was a film about a good-hearted illegal alien couple (Muslim) being taken in by a good-hearted American widower-college-professor. Then the Muslim gets arrested and deported. That's it. That's the movie. There was no resolution, no end, only the yawning, gnawing present.
There were a lot of trailers for coming art house movies at the beginning, and they all had the same atmosphere. Ambiguous, ambivalent and no promise of a resolution. The feel-bad movies of the year. I think it is the times we live in- and I think things are going to get worse before they get better. Time to head for the center of the boat, those at the gunwales are starting to get their feet wet.
There was a Governor from Texas who opposed the distribution of Spanish-language bibles in the prisons. He said, "if English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!" (quote from Christopher Hitchen's "God Is Not Great")

2 comments:

Patrick Ballesteros said...

Great stuff mike! So prolific, I feel so lazy right now. Hopefully some of that sketchbook energy will rub off on me by osmosis. Seriously though I love the energy and variety you push in each page. Bookmarking this site right now!

Mike Tracy said...

Thanks, Patrick!