The Crippled Wings Of Flight

*

When the lamp is shattered
The light in the dust lies dead -
When the cloud is scattered,
The rainbow's glory is shed.
When the lute is broken,
Sweet tones are remembered not;
When the lips have spoken,
Loved accents are soon forgot.

As music and splendour
Survive not the lamp and the lute,
The heart's echoes render
No song when the spirit is mute -
No song but sad dirges,
Like the wind through a ruined cell,
Or the mournful surges
That ring the dead seaman's knell.

When hearts have once mingled,
Love first leaves the well-built nest;
The weak one is singled
To endure what it once possessed.
O Love! who bewailest
The frailty of all things here,
Why choose you the frailest
For your cradle, your home, and your bier?

Its passions will rock thee,
As the storms rock the ravens on high;
Bright reason will mock thee,
Like the sun from a wintry sky.
From thy nest every rafter
Will rot, and thine eagle home
Leave thee naked to laughter,
When leaves fall and cold winds come.

Percy Shelley

He knew he had entered a new period of crisis. Jim Courier commenting on the Australian Open, causing consternation and difficulty across hundreds of thousands of Australian households as they struggled to mute him out while still watching the game and picking up the odd interesting bits. It was a skill, blocking out Courier's voice in the mind while tuning into the others - not to mention the accomplishment of other tasks. The cicadas screached and the Australian Open hummed and murmured, went through peak and trough, the blue of the Melbourne courts a fixture in so many people's lives. At this time of year. As if the passing of years could be measured by past victories. Federer. Of course. Playing Hewett tonight. He isn't, from what he could pick up, certainly in his household, popular amongst teenage girls. Two gorgeous babes, he laughed, the girls dolled up for a party.

These were the final days of an entire cycle of life. It was time to man the barricades against the destructive patterns of the past. To protect himself against himself. If anything could be more tedious. The stereotypical fear. New waves of tourists crowded Campbell Parade, the boulevarde, if you could call it that, along the front of Bondi Beach. The muggy heat interfered with his own mercurial, melting state. Things were collapsing and there was nothing he could do to control them. Everything was being stripped away. He had become an invalid, in need of protection, even from himself. These were dark times when the evil engineers who had populated those institutional corridors ate away into the fabric of his brain.

And in order to survive he was forced to create his own army of evil agents; to fight against the fabric of things; to ensure that good conquered evil, just for once, just once. Courier continues his technical love affairs; today with Davidenko - "he is not afraid to go forth" - while the Australian commentators, such as John Alexander, are virtually mute in comparison; their coverage dignified, restrained, unopinionated and non-self obsessed coverage is lost in the American accented babble. Why does the Australian Open have an American as its most public figurehead? It is just ridiculous. But these things, these idle things, were lost in the summer heat; tragendy in Haiti, Nigeria, far away. Still, it was hard to believe.

If he could have crumpled up and disappeared he would have. It was not possible to be more restrained. He said nothing to no one. He would not, could not communicate. People sensed his reluctance, and rarely bothered to engage. Oh what stupid things people say. It was too painfully cruel. The tennis balls bounced. The world turned on its axis. Postcards drifted by; the boy in the gutter, the queen peering down, oh so concerned, of course, a shower a blow job $20 and on his way, he was that sort of kid; the acres of pain that the Rex Hotel presented, the epistles he had heard from people disturbed decades later; alcohol can save you and destroy you, one path obviates another; but nothi9ng could be more painful than a thousand hands reaching out, plucking, plucking, wanting, wanting. He was only one person and they could easily eat you alive.

It wasn't healthy; they didn't even for a moment pretend that it was. Life was effed and that was all too it, they could cluster around the Fountain and swap notes, escapades, intrigues, opportunities. Who was paying what, who was getting what. Who had stolen what from whom. If he had spent his childhood reading his way systematically through the school library, here was something that presented a real world experience. People who had no idea what The Great Books were, much less the Encyclopaedia Brittannica which his father had so ostentatiously bought for their education. The old drunks living up under the Harbour Bridge frightened him each night as he walked to work, the sound of smashing bottles. It was so painfully cruel. He had seen too much.

Thus, as his mind searched for any possible excuse to destroy him, to dive off the ledge and never come back, to embrace chaos and die a sad relic, "no harm no fowl, great point" says Courier, deuce says the empire, there was a terrible realignment of the stars. They all seemed so happy, so preoccupied with their own laughs, the teenagers he waded through, past the shops selling board shorts and suntan lotion, past the girls in skimpy outifts, sustained by attentive boyfriends. Hands clutch casually, lustilly together. He was determined there would be another way out. It was a strange point to have reached. One narrative ended and another began. Projects loomed large but all he wanted to do was disappear. There would be shadows; there would be light. The elements needed to be realigned. He could be reabsorbed; in a world drenched with information, stories, broken narratives.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/23/haiti.earthquake/

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The Haitian government has declared the search-and-rescue phase over for the survivors of the massive quake, the United Nations said Friday.

International search teams have rescued 132 people since the 7.0-magnitude quake rocked Haiti on January 12, the U.N. said.

While the search-and-rescue phase was ending, humanitarian and relief efforts were still being ramped up, the U.N. said.

The Haitian government has confirmed 111,481 deaths from the quake, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest report on the relief effort.

Fires are expected to flare up in the quake's aftermath, from broken mains and other damage. A massive blaze consumed a textile factory in Port-au-Prince Friday night as U.N. workers tried to contain the flames and spare nearby buildings. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Meanwhile, aftershocks from the 7.0-magnitude quake have become a way of life for people here as they spend their days searching for food, water and shelter.

Haitians brace for each aftershock as they wait for supplies and sustenance to reach them.

More than $355 million in donations in the United States alone has been raised for the relief effort, but stacks of aid -- baby formula, pain medication, antibiotics and other much-needed supplies -- are sitting on the tarmac and in warehouses at the airport in Port-au-Prince.

Whatever you call last week's Massachusetts Revolt – Massachusetts Miracle? Massachusetts Message? – one thing is unmistakably clear: Republican Scott Brown winning Ted Kennedy's Senate seat changes everything for President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.
Also Online

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-obama_0124edi.State.Edition1.295f2aa.html

What's The Big Story? Find out at dallasnews.com/opinion

Blog: Opinion

At the very least, Brown is the 41st Republican senator, removing Senate Democrats' filibuster-proof majority to pass big initiatives on party-line votes.

Despite gloom on the left, this could be good for Obama and his party – not to mention the country – if it forces them to lose some of their hubris and govern more from the middle. Now Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must get at least a few Senate Republicans to sign off on major items like health care, deficit reduction and immigration reform.

If this recalibration proves a good thing, it's only too bad that we had to have a third consecutive presidency where the administration learned the hard way that governing solely from the base is a ticket to trouble. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama each got their comeuppance after aligning too closely with partisan congressional leaders. Before Massachusetts, voters in Virginia and New Jersey, two states Obama won in November, sent similar messages of distress at the nation's direction.

Former Democratic Sen. David Boren of Oklahoma puts a fine point on this problem in today's Point Person interview. As he explains, Congress has become a much more polarized place. When a president hands off a big issue like health care to his party's leaders on Capitol Hill, as Obama did, it is only natural that they exclude the opposition party.

More than that, they will frame most pieces of legislation in a way that attracts only party die-hards. And that is something Americans have said over and over that they don't want. Voters don't want a hard-right or far-left country.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/americas/Obama-scrambles-to-revive-economic-optimism/Article1-500876.aspx

President Barack Obama is seeking to reassure voters he is determined to create jobs while his administration is trying to protect an architect of the increasingly unpopular banking bailout that may have helped prevent a financial collapse.

Obama's efforts on the economy come after a Massachusetts Senate election this past week that suggested voter unrest when Republican Scott Brown claimed a Senate seat in Democratic hands for more than a half-century. Brown gives the Republicans a crucial 41st seat in the 100-seat Senate, taking away the Democrats' supermajority and threatening Obama's agenda.

And the administration has been working to shore up eroding support for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is seeking another four-year term.

In the face of daunting political conditions, Obama was sounding feisty as he told a town hall crowd he was more determined than ever to help the economy and pursue his agenda.

"I'm not going to win every round," Obama said in Ohio Friday. But he pledged, "I can promise you there will be more fights in the days ahead."

He tried out a revamped message focused mainly on the economy that is part of a stepped up effort to convince Americans that he's doing all he can to create jobs.