I.
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land! So I’m happy tonight, I’m not worried about anything! I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory
— The Prophet Martin
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II.
Then the soothsayer brought his Javalina drip with cream up to the top of the Twin Peaks of the Gila … There the One showed him the whole of the land … Then the One saith unto him, “This is the land last&best I promised on oath to Abraham, to Special Agent Cooper and to Jacob also … I will let you see it with your reluctantly civilized eyes, oh son of man, but you shall not cross over into it, for while you’ve been a very good boy in some ways, money management is not one of them, and so you don’t quite deserve a doublewide, much less a Grand Tour of Some Other Continent.”
— Deuteronomous 34:1–4 (adapted)
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III.
200 miles and 400 dollars later, Kali is home and perky rather than ash in an urn. Thus far.
The hour eastbound on I-40 again coincided with an hour of Radiolab:
It was by far the best NPR I’ve heard in many, many a month. Check it out and be provoked to thoughts. I was.
However, senior citizen oscar the grouch that I am, I’m still gonna push back on one specific bit.
Early in the ep, a doctor told his son a joke.
“What’s the difference between a working musician and a large cheese pizza?”
“The large pizza will feed your family, Har!”
Okay, tepidly funny, sure. But …
Exactly the sly and mean-spirited kind of cultural propaganda I have grown to hate that station for.
My serious answer to the joke is this:
“I get it. And maybe you’re right, Dr. PMC.
But I got around this indoctrination another way.
I decided that being a ‘musician’ was more important than having a family.
I made songs instead of making a bunch of mouths to feed, and I’m at peace with that choice even when I’m starving myself.
So put that in your fat smug pipe and smoke it, bitch (insert twelve-string power chord here)