Welcome to The Alternative View

The triumph of life occurs when we form and nurture healthy relationships. The triumph in literature occurs when we are able to write a sentence with a simple cadence, natural eloquence. My life is filled with family, friends, acquaintances, and misspelled words. Although I try to avoid having political discussions, I can spell Democrat, Republican, Independent, Statehood, Green, Libertarian. I can even say nice things about all of them. In Washington, DC saying nice things about a political party often requires great diplomacy and social skills.

Searching for a topic is both exhilarating and frustrating. I looked around my apartment at the books on the shelves, at the weekly news magazines on my desk. No single issue appealed to me.

Creating an essay in my mind is easy, the hard part is deciding upon the words and writing it. The mechanics of writing can slow any writer. Potential ideas flashed boldly in my brain, and then coyly retreated with thoughts of washing dishes, folding laundry.

I needed a living, moving muse. I remembered this “gentleman activist” the boy from Tennessee. He is one of those amazing, intelligent people that you bump into and want to have long conversations about the writings of Socrates, Thucydides, Aristotle. All of history flashes when he tells an anecdote about growing up in Tennessee.

And so he suggested writing about the media’s sensational coverage of Hurricane Gustav. He said something about Hurricane Katrina. Amidst this talk of hurricanes and evacuations and refugees and emergency shelters and displaced populations, my mind flashed to the Vietnam War, then to the American Civil War, and finally to the Peloponnesian War.

Then, our conversation turned to the Governor of Alaska’s candidacy to be the next Vice President, her beauty pageant days, her variant of a beehive hairdo, her pregnant seventeen year old daughter.

The triumph of life occurs when we try to connect to new people and share an alternative view.