It took me a while to get that line totally. It's from one of my favorite poems, "Judging Distances," by Henry Reed, which is actually on this week's playlist. Of course it finally came to me that maps of the world have changed enormously throughout history, while the land has, relatively speaking, changed not a whit. It's all about how the lines are drawn, about borders.
And there's been lots in the news in the last few years about borders, from Tea Party insistence that we fence ours with Mexico, so as to keep out all of the workers willing to do the jobs Americans disdain as too menial, distasteful, or low-paying. And now we're looking at the Russian incursion into Ukraine and the annexation (after a vote, however) of Crimea. There are the usual blustering, fist-banging, ultimately impotent saber-rattling calls to action from the US Right, and the seemingly timid, hand-wringing, ultimately impotent calls for sanctions from the Center (remember, there's no real Left left here). Specious and spurious comparisons to Neville Chamberlain's alleged appeasement of Hitler in 1938 abound, and yet what, really, can be done? Russia, although embroiled in its own issues at home, is still a powerful entity militarily, and we don't engage with people who can fight back (and why should we fight at all?), so sanctions seem to be the only possible way to have an effect.
But why's it our business in the first place? Why are we always the ones to stick our noses into issues and events the world over? More importantly (and crazier, in most people's eyes) why do we need borders? Why can't a citizen of the world be allowed to go wherever she wishes, whenever he wishes? Yeah, yeah, I know, terrorists-- all Muslims want to kill all non-Muslims, etc. But maybe, if we allowed true freedom, all of the anger and acrimony would be erased, and we'd realize once for all that there is just "one world, believe it or not." Imagine.
This week's playlist, then:
Across The Borderline Willie Nelson
Borderline Ry Cooder
Border Song Elton John
Cross The Borderline Dillard Hartford Dillard
The Borderline Dirk Hamilton
Border Radio Dave Alvin
The Border Guard J.D. Souther
Disorder At The Border Dizzy Gillespie/Coleman Hawkins
Down Below The Borderline Little Feat
On The Borderline Leon Russell
Bordertown Chris Whitley
Cross The Borderline Jerry Jeff Walker
South Of The Border Lou Donaldson
On The Border Eagles
Map Of The World Monsters Of Folk
Judging Distances Henry Reed
Borderline Blues Little Feat
Borderline Daryl Hall
Over The Border (To America) Graham Parker
Across The Border Linda Ronstadt/Emmylou Harris
Borderline Joni Mitchell
Crimea River Joe Cocker
One World Dire Straits
One World John Martyn
Aerial Boundaries Michael Hedges
A Map Of The World Pat Metheny
Imagine John Lennon
Interesting that there are so few women represented. Do they just care less about nebulous, ephemeral, and ultimately meaningless constructs, or have they been prevented from establishing their own boundaries for so long that it doesn't matter? That's probably a whole nother topic though, huh?
See you Tuesday, noon till two on the new, expanded, even better WOOL FM, 91.5, or WOOL.FM on the webs.
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