It arrives with the departure of the cards in the mail and the phone calls ceasing. The flowers wilting. The roar of support and steadfastness matriculating into the pattern of daily living, as if the comfort for a while is not the clicking and clattering of your own brain but the distraction from it.
You’re left as you always are – by yourself – and the patterns and the work-a-day routine of just going on. Forging ahead. New patterns. Fewer things to attend to then more of a different variety.
Famously it was Jimmy Carter who gave what became known as the ‘Malaise Speech’ in 1979 decrying the confidence of the nation’s citizens in their own greatness and ingenuity to forge a glorious destiny beyond their immediate concerns. Ironically, the word ‘malaise’ was never uttered in the speech.
“Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don’t like, and neither do I. What can we do?” Carter asked.
After the events of almost two weeks ago now, like always, it’s the songs, the music, the records that hasten a return to some spiritual normalcy beyond the malaise.
Thought I’d rub my nose in it this week.
Benjy Ferree – A Little At a Time (Mp3)
Peter Bradley Adams – Waltz of Windy Clouds (Mp3)
The Joy Formidable – 9669 (Mp3)
Adrian Borland – Lonely Late Nighter (Mp3)
Sam Cooke – (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons (Mp3)
