COMFORTABLY NUMB

"There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb"



Laying here in my hammock at the lake, miles away from Fox News and Talk Radio is a nice respite from the goings on in Washington and Greece and Iran and Syria.
I'm kind of a news junkie and political wonk, so my central nervous system gets a daily injection of bleak news when I'm in cable land.
I've built a digital antenna and tried to no avail to get local news here. Fortunately TV is not a possibility down here in my austere setting.
I use the word fortunately because it's for my own good to get away from the Eric Holder's, Nancy Pelosi's, Barrack Obama's, Harry Reid's, and Muslim Brotherhoods of the world for a few days.
Here at the little lake cabin/shed getaway, I alternate my auditory reception between a Stevie Ray Vaughn CD,  Pink Floyd on my Iphone or just the sounds of the breeze making its way through the tree tops and across the lake interspersed with the songs of birds that I can't identify.

Sometimes when I'm at home, the daily meat grinder of bad news emanating from my TV and radio can bring on a fair amount of apathy. I try to find solace by telling myself that at least I'm entering the Golden Age of my life and the planet may hold out and give me a few more decent years.
Then I think about my kids and especially my grandson (s).
Any solace that I may have conjured up quickly evaporates.
I think "well we had a good run, over 200 years as the greatest nation ever conceived on planet Earth".
Now we are a nation angrily divided along party and moral lines.
We were a great country until some decided they didn't want to be anymore.
The ones that didn't subscribe to that notion didn't have to participate in our demise, they just got tired of being vilified so they capitulated. 
 That's all it takes, just give up the keys and let the blind take the wheel.
So that's how we got here today, in this 200 plus year old vehicle running down the highway with deep trenches on either side and a road raged blind man behind the wheel.

Ahh, but that's all out of my purview just this minute as I swing back and forth on my hammock.
There is a cooler full of Rocky Mountain goodness in the shed and a bottle of Crown sitting on the picnic table.

I know the tone of this post is less than upbeat and inspiring.
Early this morning I laid here on the hammock and finished reading "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly, thoughts of that tragic event may be adding to my bleak mood.
Fear not though for my melancholy is about to make a hasty retreat.
Roger Waters breaks my minds connection to the dismal headlines of the day and it's time make a drink and return to the hammock where I have become comfortably numb. 


"There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
And I have become
Comfortably numb"


Waters/Gilmour