Poet's Corner

[Koikaze]

That's a real cool post, Poet. Some day I'd like to tell you something of how I felt in the '50s. I won't now, though, because it will take me a month to compose it.

I don't think I can answer the question of why we may be more obsessed with winning than other cultures. All I can say is that it strikes me as a destructive preoccupation. When I was young, we used to hear about "The Almighty Dollar", which was the god then coming into vogue. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. It is successful, though, because, like quarterly reports, it tends to give instant gratification. It is as insidious in some minds as any drug. The downside, of course, is that it supplants concern for the well-being of others. And, that, when stripped to its bare essentials, means we are losing our capacity for love. Sex, we have, aplenty. Love seems to be increasingly rare.

This is part of what I've allowed to happen to our country. I wish I'd been stronger.

Fred