Wow. What a day. I'm sitting here, exhausted out of my mind, staring out the window at damp, rainy Washington. Jo is sitting here, too, after having finished her morning bouts of vomiting. What a pleasant scene. I have no idea to what extent I screwed up the Psych test but I do know that the French quiz is a lost cause. Second cut in gym. Christ... Last night was really weird -- lying in bed awake for 5 straight hours. I still can't get to sleep...
Tomorrow starts 3 days of fun and games with the March on Washington. Dunno if, when or how Don's coming or where I'm gonna put him. T'would be nice if he could stay here. I'd like to participate in the march from Arlington and the one down to Pennsylvania Ave., but what is it -- 28,000 National Guard Troops?! We shall see.
I've become very good company for myself lately. Really, I talk to myself inside my head as I walk down the street, making comments about this, that or the other. I'm really quite a friendly and perceptive person...Letter from Mr. Terry was surprising; talk about irony. My reply though is going to be a little more personal this time. I'll have to see how he responds.
So now I'm adjusted. Took long enough! No, good o' Thurston certainly ain't no bed of roses and everybody has their problems, even cheerful #609. Amy's a good kid. Cindy, too. I wonder why it surprises me to have people show an interest in how I feel or what I'm doing. It never used to. Maybe it has something to do with darling little lovable and affectionate Terry. Brother. That girl is really gonna drive me up a wall. Like I've said, sometimes she's fairly tolerable but the other times, with her bottomless stomach and profusion of "Honeys", I could scream! I think Joann may be edging slightly away from her. I'm workin' on it. Terry's cute practical joke the other nite certainly helped, and our talk about Harrad and stuff brought the 2 of us closer together.
Up with legalized abortions -- Washington's on the move...Don's financial affiars are frustrating me. No money, in other words. What's doubly depressing is that I'm almost in the same boat. The word for the day is BUDGET...I can't wait to spring Don on Dennis on Friday. Dennis is becoming positively obnoxious.
"The principle of self-responsibility, for self, society and the world has relevance only now! Never at some later date. One may not put off being human." -- Ashley Montagu, On Being Human
November 15th
"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam,
and admit that the waters around you have grown.
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone,
If your time to you is worth savin'...
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone,
For the times they are a'changin'....
PEACE! Hundres upon thousands of people in Washington. All in the name of peace, love and freedom. I'll never forget these last 2 days. Impressions: A brilliant blue sky, cloud-flecked. The voices of Peter, Paul and Mary, with Pete Seeger leading the swaying, almost reverential verse, "All we are saying, is give peace a chance." Yes, people swayed back and forth, our voices loud and our arms waving the sign of peace. "The Times They are a' Changin'". Steaming coffee. Pressing forward with the urgency of "If I Had a Hammer". Chill wind, damp ground. Leaflets and papers. The stark whiteness of the Monument against the sky. Brotherhood and oneness. Love. Laughing with Scruggs' country music, Beethoven and the symphony, Timothy Leary, Richie Havens, Sen. George McGovern. Speeches of priorities and the expression of the vocal majority (of effete snobs!) The approaching dusk and the performance of New York's "Hair" cast -- and the unbelievable part of the day.
Vice President Spiro Agnew, in lauding the power of the nation's "silent majority", labeled the protesters a group of "effete snobs".
For 10 minutes, over 500,000 chanted the unified plea, "Let the Sunshine In". Some really wonderful guy in front of me offered to let me sit on his shoulders and as I looked about me at the immensity of the smiling, dancing crowd, I almost cried with the sheer beauty of it. And then I looked up at the fading blue, rosy-gold sky and saw over a dozen doves wheeling over our head. The lights of the TV cameras helped to illuminate the growing circle of people just dancing in a cirle in front of the performers' platform. Laughing, singing, smiling together, joining in a massive effort...all ages...a larger crowd even than Woodstock, but without the drugs. Old men and women, determined to end the war, joining in.
I felt like I had truly found myself again after the last 2 months. I wanted to be able to preserve the moment -- drop out of school and travel with these thousands of open, honest and freedom-seeking people. It renewed my faith in man's basic integrity and I felt like proclaiming it to the Universe. I am. I laugh. I love. I live.
Yesterday was a much more personal experience, but quite vital and moving none-the-less. I felt such a fierce surge of pride as we marched through the cold wind, rain and sleet bearing the name placards of all those boys killed in the war. I, Sunny, finally found the strength of my convictions and was able to sacrifice the comfort of my feet, a pair of shoes and the condition of my corduroy coat in order to shout the name of Anthony Tencza as we passed the White House. I remember the look on the face of the man who stood bare-headed in the rain as he offered his umbrella to a group of marchers, and the determined expression on one old lady who sat in a Mobe tent at Arlington. Admiration. Support. The almost eerie ringing of the bell under the stormy sky. A middle-aged woman in a fur coat standing in the pouring rain. "Let the Sunshine In".
I also learned this weekend to what lengths someone (namely, me) will go when she wants something. Two nights Don stayed with me among such organized efforts that the CIA would be hard put to surpass. I spirited him up and down stairs and in and out of closets with quite a finesse, if I must say so myself. Such a happy and unreal 3 days. I'm sitting here listening to "The Sun is a Very Magic Fellow", waiting for the depression to fall. It's inevitable, I'm afraid. Despite a few uncertainties, based on Don's amount of reaction to a few things (precipitated by tiredness, no doubt) we had one helluva groovy time -- from Georgetown to the tear gas raid. I love him and miss him so now. Thurston and F St. look beautiful to me now --- jam-packed with kids from all over the country. Sleeping anywhere and everywhere, eating everything and anything. I love us. Peace.
"A man's reach should exceed his grasp."
"The need to surpass oneself, too strive always for that elusive thing called excellence..."
No comments:
Post a Comment