A Hard Rain, And A Lot Of Tears

Bob Dylan delegated Patti Smith to receive the Nobel Prize for him and she also sang one of his songs "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" to a deeply moved audience.  I felt that the whole world was in mourning for the tragic results of the American election.  The site where I was able to hear Ms. Smith sing Dylan's song appends responses of those listening or viewing I guess I should say.  If I had not been crying as she sang, then the words of the listeners, the lost hopes and dreams of a generation that were my first students back in the day, would have set me off.  We all had such hopes once upon a time.  And then came Reagan and that mentality.  I live in Sarasota and enjoy the benefits of the many cultural activities here, but again and again I am overwhelmed by the vast wealth, the orgiastic style of overblown, so expensive architecture. I was raised in the years of the Great Depression in a household which was considered at the time upper class, and well, luxurious, I guess you might say, and yet there was always simplicity, shunning of ostentation, honoring the work done in the house by hired help by pitching in alongside when need be.  Here in what used to be dear little Sarasota every day another shingle house is ripped down to put up a condo building or a private home almost as large---private houses for no more than a couple.  The streets are becoming more like a New York City canyon every day.  And this is our America.  And soon we will have a new president in office who goes with that kind of spiritual decor.