RUDIMENTS, pt. 974
(what more is to be asked)
Most people believe what
they're told, or what they
see. I only believe in what
I know. I'm not sure what
that makes me, an idiot or
a sage, or even where it places
me in that old, long line of the
Doubting Thomas cranks. But,
whatever, that's me and I'll
step forward when called.
Mainly it's all because I
don't care - I'm worn out
and my threads are frazzled;
tired to hell of a complete and
long life of half-truths and
things not being, upon
investigation, what I'd
been told they were. As
a for instance - and once
again with Government
money and a constant and
expanding Park Rangers',
and buildings and grounds,
payroll - you can drive up
the Turnpike and as you get to
the NJ Meadowlands - what
little is left of them - see,
and turning off, enter, a
dedicated Nature Center,
complete with guides and
full exhibits, covering the
importance of those meadows,
waterways and fields. Now,
any of those people - the
Rangers, guides, teachers,
etc., will sit you down, show
you slides and exhibits, things
about turtles and hawks, harriers,
ducks, and crows. With great,
seemingly, reverence too. All
the while what is happening
right around them, year after
year, is the complete betrayal
of all they're speaking of. The
total opposite : being built,
malls, playlands stadium and
parking areas, even condos
now and warehouses. There
is a mindless, complete
disconnect underway...of the
sort that simply has me on
full alert and wondering about
Humankind. I fear soon enough
that this small island of parking
and 'museum' will be its own
isolated spot, still maybe called
'Nature,' but isolated in a sea of
developed marshes and meadows,
and still foolishly bragging on
about it all. What sort of idiotic,
tax-based, money waste is any
of this? Where do these dollars
go, and how many are allocated
for this stupid site yearly and
how many actually end up there?
It all seems like a very leaky
money faucet, to me. But that's
why people go into politics, to
tap into things like this.
-
One of the most formidable things
I learned, and took note of, was
the sort of blind indifference the
rest of America had to NYC, in
the sense of a physical place. To
see the shadow-play of 1970's
ecology and Nature concerns, all
that Earth Day and tree-planting
stuff, was somehow to close one's
eyes to the reality of what had
become of the island of Manhattan.
Frankly, over 300 years it had
degenerated, or been allowed to
degenerate, from one of the most
beauteous of island locations to a
truly veritable pigsty and unnatural
place. Yet no one said a word. 30
miles from Manhattan, if you poured
oil into a sewer you'd probably face
eco-jail time and a fine. People had
become completely self-righteous
about things like that. At the same
time, the island of Manhattan had
been ravaged, over time, by leveling,
digging, draining, cutting, building,
concrete, steel, iron, glass, mortar,
smoke, gaseous and noxious fumes,
and deadly gray darkened skies.
It was pretty incredible, and yet,
most everyone, with their focus
on the present day of streets and
street numbers and avenues and
locations and places, gave little
or no thought as to what they
were inhabiting, or walking upon.
It was incredible how people
were able to so compartmentalize
all those things and segregate them
from each other. Living completely
un-natural like, they'd then go up
to the 92nd Street Y and hear a
lecture about the pristine world,
and begin screaming about it all,
missionary zeal for their false
'ecological' concerns taking over.
Or they'd wander to the Ethical
Culture Society, or St. Mark's
In the Bouwery Church, and hear
the same there and begin crusades
of decency and natural living! On
Manhattan Island no less! It
seemed (seems) no different
than that other Turnpike and
Meadowlands Nature-disconnect.
I've always found people to be
incredible creatures.
-
At the same time, going back to
1967 and my very first exposures
there, none of that existed at all.
The streets were paper-strewn;
garbage, trash of all sorts, dead and
broken cars, gutters overflowing,
disgusting pieces of leftover
buildings and tenements, broken
plumbing everywhere, fetid odors
and pooled apartment waters, air
shafts being used as dump chutes
for everything from old couches
to bicycles to TV's. One just had
to know it had to end, and soon,
or we'd all just turn into rats. It
surely was a different world. I
wonder now how plagues and
breakouts never happened; God
only knows what deep gulf
food-preparation was hanging
over, and I shudder to think
now, looking back. The food
place that I did some part-time
work at was a dastardly handling
hole of probable bacteria, old
food, basement storages (in
more of a cave than any real
'basement' concept), and leaky,
gnawed-at items, gnawed by
vermin, that is. I don't recall
inspections or inspectors, but
I guess all that went on. Just
the fact that this hell-hole had
no AC, and that countless people
sauntered in, grabbing and quickly
dining in 14,000 degree dead-heat,
made it a probable for disaster. I
got out of there as soon as I could.
-
Hunkering down in NYC? If you
were to tell yourself it was for any
other reason then intellectual
pursuit, I'd have to hope you were
lying. The people I saw lived in
an abject environment, and among
situations that would have made
Calcutta (now called Kolkatta) or
Rangoon veritable paradises by
comparison. Most anyone else,
except the very rich or at least
more than modestly comfortable,
were there because they were
stuck there - maroon'd, ghetto'd,
lost, struggling and forgotten.
Those free to come and go, enter
and leave, at least had that escape
valve to rely on : the larks of
a quick vacation or a few days
out, made it all better after a
re-entry. However, the crowd I
saw was either in earnest study
of some sort, art, acting, or
research; and the others just
'were.' At that level of living,
that I was at, environmental
concerns (sorry) just do not
come to the forefront. Yet, and
I admit, I liked these people best.
They were alive. They squirmed,
yes, and had bad situations often,
but they lived a thorough life.
What more is to be asked?
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