Exceptional, really exceptional

Do you believe the US to be exceptional, not just different, not better just because, but better because GOD said so? This is the rationlization for why the Americal lifestyle, big cars, big houses, big plates, unsupportable for the 3+ billion people expected to hop on this planet by 2050, should be our birthright (and speaking of which, where's your birth certificate?).

Dangerous. The forbidden Horst Wessel Stanza about "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles" (Germany above all), is about German exceptionalism. About the right of Aryans to enough fatherland at the expense of, well, everybody else.

Friday afternoon, after five. The rain, rain, rain has pushed out east . Behind One KC Place the last cloud. Two minutes left to catch the bus out of town for the weekend.

May 21, 2010

Es treibt der Wind

Es treibt der Wind im Winterwalde

die Flockenherde wie ein Hirt,

und manche Tanne ahnt, wie balde

sie fromm und lichterheilig wird,

und lauscht hinaus, den weißen Wegen

streckt sie die Zweige hin - bereit,

und wehrt dem Wind und wächst entgegen

der einen Nacht der Heiligkeit.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926

The Wind It Drives

The wind it drives, through winter woods

a shepherd of this snowflake herd

and where a pine knows, soon it could

stand pious, bright, out in the world

and listens, down these trails in snow

her branches reach out for the light

and fights the wind, where she will grow

up for the highest, holy night.

Not as I was

Back then, inexperienced,
And more modest than I am today
I had the highest regards
For others.

Later, out there in the pasture
I met calves other than me
And now appreciate, so to speak,
First myself.

(My translation of "Früher, da ich unerfahren", a poem by Wilhelm Busch in Criticism of the Heart, 1874)

Weihnachtsfeierlich

Weihnachtsfeierlich der Wald
Tännlein, Christlein stumm und kalt
Welt in Heiliges gewickelt
Sofakissen, bunt bestickelt
Sterne schweben, hoch und klein
Nachbarshund jammert
Ganz allein.

Aus Schokolade, braun und stramm

Aus Schokolade, braun und stramm
Mein süßer, zarter Weihnachtsmann
Frisch aus seiner Weihnachtsfolie
Geschenkt zu meines Bauches wohl, ja
Wer hatte jemals so ´nen Freund
Der niemals dieses Fest versäumnt
Der massenweise produziert ist
Den man sorgenfrei allein frisst
Oder, wenn gezwungen, teilt,
Brüderlich, sein Weihnachtskleid.
Oh Du selig, frommer Mann
Mein Schokoladenweihnachtsmann.

Christmas Eve at the Office

We looked for an early dismissal
A three o'clock, five o'clock whistle
Yes, work is OK
But we'd rather play
Say now, and I'm out like a missile.

(Waiting for the word to leave early for the Holidays!)