Notes and related thoughts.

I cannot speak to PTSD - especially in regards to combat as I've never been beyond the walls Grim describes.  Grim doesn't want to call it an illness per se, and he's correct to a point.  But mental illness in general, as I can speak to - whether due to environment or physiology - may rise to the definition of an illness.  The end is the same, however - it is not something to be ashamed of.  Likewise, it is not something to let fester as it only gets worse with time. 

There is nothing at all weak about facing one's demons.  It may, in fact, be the hardest battle ever.  In any case:  If you have a broken arm, you seek to mend it.  In that simplified sense, mental 'illness' of any sort is no different - the treatments, as Grim accurately describes them, are, however, far more varied than a trip to the hospital and a cast.  The most difficult part, though, is no one else can make you well.  Worse yet:  Defeating those demons means living with them.  Ride deep.

There's something to be said of the generational gap that permeates that Mathewes-Green piece - that hyphenated name may be detrimental to such sentiments though.  We can, of course, wallow in the fact that we are not the Greatest Generation.  That sort of sorrow, however, generally doesn't lead to greatness. 

There was the story, for instance, of the Clinton administration lamenting the timing of the 9/11 attacks.  A sort of thinking that neglects to say the event was horrible and should never have happened in favor of saying we could have responded better, and our response would have ensured our own place in history.  A sort of masochism, being envious of other's suffering.  When the debate grinds down to who can cut themselves better, something is wrong.  Not wholly new however.

Victor Davis Hanson in his book, A War Like No Other, describes the generational divide between the Greeks who fought the Persians at Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis and then the Athenians and Spartiates who fought each other during the twenty-seven year "Great Ancient Greek Civil War" (as VDH names the Peloponnesian War).  That is, trying to mimic a previous generation in ends when, really, the point is to deal with the circumstances at hand as best as one can as previous generations dealt with their own circumstances as best as they could.  Not everyone may be numbered amongst the 300 afterall - nor should just anyone be.  Likewise, not everyone may be numbered amongst the Silicon Valley greats - nor should just anyone be.

We do our best in the context of everything.  You know the rest of that thought already.  Live up to what and who you are.

If you've read through the thread about the late Norman Mailer then you know I didn't think much of him or his writing.  This, I think, sums up this post.  Shouting inanities versus mumbling truth.  Big talkers versus big sticks.  Art, it seems to me, should take the latter course.

There is no pretense in Michelangelo's David.  There is no boasting.  There is nothing to prove.  There is the simplicity of understanding one's limits, accepting those limits, even, while seeking to go beyond them.  David rides deep, slingshot in hand, despite this seemingly impossible task.  He is ready to confront that which he should not be able to defeat.  Circumstance has brought him to this point.  David will face Goliath.

That, in my mind, is true art if art is understood as a reflection of life.

*Yes, there is such a thing as a Conservative Punk.  Those boards are, in fact, generally interesting if you enjoy no-holds-barred debating - they don't exclude anyone from voicing opinions except bone fide Communists or Fascists.  Although, I admit, citing anything punk in a post that decries shouting inanities is somewhat antithetical.