We Bumble On

So. There's so much to say, but really, I'm too impatient to write it all. I've a drawing to do & I'll be doing it while I keep one eye & some of my mind on HBO's rebroadcast of its brilliant miniseries based upon the life & times of John & Abigail Adams, based upon David McCullough's biography. And I've a novel still in need of revision. Now that I've written a bit of a note here, now that I've revisited my sadness by reading Andy Griffith's obituary and been reminded that we all can keep getting older w/o his presence in the world. Now that another great chunk has broken off of the continent of my culture and fallen into the big river...It must have been like this - not exactly like this but I'd be willing to bet that some of these feelings might be mirrored in the hearts of Americans 186 years ago, when they heard that Thomas Jefferson had died. Got his ticket punched. Moreover, the loquacious lion of the Revolution, John Adams, left the building, exited the world's stage on that very same day, 50 years to the day since the 2nd Continental Congress voted to adopt the D. of I.  Of course Thos. J. drafted it, but his older Revolutionary brothers, J. Adams & Benj. F., gave it a good editing & going over - a painful process it must have been. and all done w/o our modern luxury-turned-necessity: AC.

 No. It couldn't be - wouldn't be the same for those long-gone Americans, reading about the great & dead Duo, the Pen and the Voice of the Revolution. That Greatest Generation hadn't grown up watching them, hearing them, seeing their images on omnipresent screens as did my big, but not all that great generation of Boomers [lots of potential though], growing with Andy Griffith (d. 3 July 2012), Jimmy Stewart (died 2 July, 1997), & Charles Kuralt (d. 4 July 1997). Have I no sense of proportion? Yup, I got plenty. Well aware I am that a pair of accomplished actors & a TV journalist do not equal Mr. A. & Mr. J.  And what a wrench it must have been, in the summer of 1826, finding out that they were gone, but they bumbled on w/ the Republic. I reckon we still do. And we still worry about it & recognize that it is in peril, think that old John & Tom would gag & croak all over again if they could but see some of the things that have happened [Citizens United anybody?]. But not w/o some pride & incredulity that we've bumbled on.