“I can see very well
There's a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well
There's a joke and I know it very well
It's one of those that I told you long ago
Take my word I'm a madman, don't you know.” (Madman Across the Water/Elton John)
It was 1971, I was 21 years of age, I had begun to view the world, with the same eyes, but this time focused at a different angle, and encouraged to look not only around me, but past myself, and actually stare into the dim light called the future! I no longer had the luxury of looking the other way, to avoid, the things I either did not want to see, nor care to permit any introspection to interrupt my sight; but actually, just to begin the ritual of survival, notice, and acknowledge!
All of whatever had been, began to unravel and the hiding places, nooks, and crannies used to deny, or defer, or deflect, were being renovated, and I now had to reconcile with the notion maybe I was that Emperor and I were wearing no clothes, which translated for me, that truth and honor, direction and purpose, were rearranging, my atoms, and like it or not, tomorrow had arrived, and I needed to be ready.
It is now October 9, 2020, I am 70 years of age, soon headed toward the embrace of the next decade of living, and even with all of the lessons learned, the nurturing knitted into my framework of being and believing, the catastrophes of life and death, fortune or fame, destiny or fate, or just human choice and chance, I somehow still witness a madman across the water, who has become more and more a monster, and more and more a maddening manifestation of HATE and FEAR. And more than ever I must NOW, depend on all I had ever been, and still remain to fight the evil which has permeated and been permitted to replace sanity! And this HURTS, deep angst-riddled HURT!
“Once a fool had a good part in the play
If it's so would I still be here today
It's quite peculiar in a funny sort of way
They think it's very funny everything I say
Get a load of him, he's so insane
You better get your coat dear
It looks like rain, yeah” (Madman Across the Water/Elton John)
