God Save the Queen!

“You will find as the children grow up that as rule children are a bitter disappointment – their greatest object being to do precisely what their parents do not wish and have anxiously tried to prevent.”

-- Queen Victoria 1819-1901: Letter to the Crown Princess of Prussia, 5 January 1876

It’s a cold Friday, a hard rain is falling, and I ain’t even in the U.P.. I’m listening to Coltrane live at the Village Vanguard, getting ready for a gig at the Ann Arbor Holiday Inn, and wondering about Mcgee’s state of health. I’m sure he’s in the recovery room by now. Rest easy, dude. I suppose you could say my mood is code yellow, and that’s a Tom Ridge code yellow. Around these parts, it’s the inside threat you gotta watch out for. And it’s always something more than simply a material loss: the sentimental present, beloved musical instrument, or some labor of love endeavor. Steal, destroy, wreak havoc, and cause grief, that’s the modus operandi. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt as long as it ain’t you. Thankless serpent’s teeth, always the harvest of empty praise and absent consequences. Some years ago, in the eighties, I was sorely violated. They took everything I had at the time. I sought bear traps and punji sticks. It passed. I decided I needed to obtain something that couldn’t be taken. I decided to pursue a college degree. I though my drama would end. It didn’t. It never does, for any of us. Where’s those punji sticks?

- r