Rock the Casbah

I was listening to the radio on my morning commute and there was a discussion between the NPR guy and an author, Neil Ferguson I think his name was. He had written a book called War of the World or something to that effect. His point in the book was that there is a historical trend toward violence and chaos when certain historical precedents are present and when conditions are just so. The conversation was detailed and the commentator asked for specific instances to support the author’s assertions, but the bottom line was that the Middle East is about to experience a period of civil and ethnic strife that will encompass the entire region. This, he said, was because of the economic volatility, ethnic heterogeneity within national boundaries, a change from one form of government to the next in too short a period (a “rush from the battle field to the ballot box”), and the disintegration of the hegemony of a controlling empire, in this case the United States.

My take on his thinking is this: historical precedent may be a strong indicator for possibilities, but it does not mean that the past will repeat itself. He is not the second foundation from Asimov’s foundation trilogy so he can predict the future with no discrepancies. Might not the prevalence of pessimism about the fate of a region have as much to do with the region’s situational outcome as the confluence of precedents? OK, maybe not as much, but some?

Now you may ask what this topic has to do with the Irish-American experience, or the milieu of overlapping (or “Borderline”) cultures. Well, I don’t really know, but…

Big Adventures One Afternoon

Before I get into the story part of this, I just wanted to say that I just saw a Richmond bus painted like a bus going the other way, and the windows were painted like the interior of the backward bus with people inside freaking out. It was a trippy thing to see in such a conservative city. Odd.

Anyways, here are my latest big adventures. I just took a walk around the city at lunch time. I went up by the capitol building first. The restoration is almost complete, and it looks like one of the country’s finer specimens of historical architecture again. I particularly dig the statue of Washington and all the famous Virginians around him on his rampant horse. It is cool. It is also a significant site in Revolutionary War history (remember the lady that dressed like a man to join the army to keep her husband safe? No?)

I went down to Canal Walk and strolled around there. It is a park on the banks of the James and includes Brown’s Island. There are famous historical sites there too. Brown’s Island is famous and so is the Tredegar Iron Works. There is a bridge over the James that you can go out onto from Canal Walk, but you can’t cross the river because the bridge was blown up by retreating confederate troops when Richmond fell in April of 1865. They turned the bridge into a historical exhibit of the retreat on those three days in April. There are metal “boards” that have famous quotes from African-Americans, General Lee, Abe Lincoln, etc. describing the feeling during that time. The exhibit is complete when you are halfway across the James and are literally stuck out in the water with nowhere to go. It makes a strong point. But, I looked out over the river and knew that the defeated army was moving right toward my house, where the battle of Chester Station was fought a couple years earlier, I think.

So, I went back to the path and kept walking along the river. The James has class four rapids in the city, and they are right there. The wind was blowing through all the ivy and the river was rushing. I had the place mainly to myself because I took a late lunch, and it seemed like the river and ivy were hushing the city, like a chastisement to a raucous child in God’s house. It’s a nice walk. So I got to the bend where the Reynold’s Wrap distribution center is (yes, I found the spawning ground for tin foil), and I saw a pile of rocks with a stone cross about fifteen feet high coming out of the middle. I read the inscription and it described how this was the spot where the first foray out of the Jamestown settlement had reached and planted a cross on May 24th, 1607. There were about eight names listed there. I’m guessing that it wasn’t the original cross, but it’s cool that they left it there.

I thought about all the cool history that I could see just in a single lunchtime walk. I thought about the very cool, historical yet bohemian chic Shockoe Bottom (site of the best Irish bar in Virginia, I’m told) where the walk ends. I thought how impressive mother nature is, right in the center of this major city. And I thought of all the cool people who would love this as an afternoon outing, but who will never see it.

Fall

It is now mid September and Fall should be happening, but it is not. I have taken all of those colorful leaves for granted for too long, even on the trees that line the streets of a little city. I am thinking very seriously of taking my girls out to West Virginia to take a scenic ride on a steam locomotive just to breathe in the Fall. Don't laugh.