The simple answer is YES, if we really want to know more about ourselves and others. Of course, the other answer is NO, if we think that what we read (or don’t read) reveals something about our psyches is just a load of manure.

So, if your answer is yes, read on…

During this time of Covid 19 I have been allowed to see people’s bookshelves on TV as well as various forms of social media. I can’t help but look closely at the titles of their books. I don’t know what it is that draws me to the titles, maybe an inherent curiosity to know if I read the same books as Stacey Abrams, Cate Blanchett, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

But does this say more about my curiosity or theirs? What inspired my thinking about this is two-fold: 1) the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and 2) looking at different book lists folks have been posting on social media. What do these two things have in common? Maybe nothing, maybe everything.It dawned on me that on the lists of Anglos, a preponderance of the authors were male Anglos. This was surprising to me, even though maybe it shouldn’t have been. I know if you’re reading this and you’re a male Anglo, you are probably thinking, ‘Not me, I have a Toni Morrison on shelves!’ Remember, I said preponderance and if you have a Toni Morrison, a Ta-Nehisi Coates, or a book of poetry by Langston Hughes on your bookshelves, or in your list of top 100 books you have read, it puts you in a minority.

Interestingly enough, even women and minorities tend to have a preponderance of male Anglo Authors on their bookshelves. They also have a significant number of female and minorities on their bookshelves, which leads me to believe that their reading is much more inclusive than white males.

While I admire President Obama, I admire his reading lists even more (Eat your heart out, Oprah!). They tend to both fiction and non-fiction, history and biographies as well as the conservative view of world events. George Bush on the other hand tended more toward history and biographies in his reading lists. While Barack’s lists tended to be much more inclusive, authors from around the world both male and female, George’s tended to be much more Anglocentric.

So, what does all this have to do with the murder of George Floyd? I’m not really sure, I’m just throwing a lot of random thoughts out there at one time. Scattershooting, a friend would say. More for reflection and to just think about, than for debate. One thing I hear a lot when something like this happens, ‘All policemen aren’t racists.’ Yeah? Who said they were? The fact is a white police officer killed a black man. It’s just a distraction and I do not know who the master of distraction really is, the President of the United States or the Media. Let’s talk about riots, not about a white policeman killing a black man. Let’s talk about who is really doing the looting, not about a white policeman killing a black man. Let’s debate ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and not talk about a white policeman killing a black man.Let’s face the ugly truth about America, we are a racist nation. If we were not we would not need criminal justice reform and we would not need to reform our police departments. How do I know this? I’ve seen your bookshelves, America.

The easy answer to this age-old question is YES if you mean no one has the right to stop you from saying or thinking whatever you want. However, if entitled to your opinion, means you have the right to have your opinion treated as the truth, then the answer is a loud NO.

I mean, please, can you try to stop saying, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion” when you are trying to end an argument because you don’t have any facts on your side, just your subjective opinion?

How is it possible I can accept your opinion that the greatest band of the sixties was the Rolling Stones, but you cannot accept my opinion that climate change is a hoax? First of all, your opinion that the Rolling Stones were the greatest band of the sixties is totally subjective; it is your judgment or view and not something that can be argued logically. It is a matter of taste. Using your opinion to share a view or judgment is fine in this situation. However, if I say it is my opinion that climate change is a hoax when there is a preponderance of evidence refuting my opinion, then I am not entitled to have that opinion.

So, when you hear the opinion that the Rolling Stones were the best band of the sixties, do not get upset, that is just an opinion, a judgment. You may not agree with it, but the person who holds that opinion is entitled to it. It may be a good conversation starter, however. But, by the same token, when you hear the opinion that climate change is a hoax, then no, that is no longer a subjective opinion that someone is entitled to, because of the vast amount of evidence that says climate change is indeed a fact.

What do we do when someone presents their opinion to us as a fact that we do not accept based on evidence? We try to present the evidence to them in such a way that we provide them with a basis to change their ‘opinion.’ However, if you hear, “Well, we just have to agree to disagree.” Save yourself, your time, and your arguments for another day; you have just met another human who accepts their own opinions as facts but has not a clue as to what constitutes a fact.

Until Next Time,

I Remain,

Just Another Opinionated Zororastafarian looking for a clue…

In Chapter Thirty-Three, page 273 of Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam, Bill McCloud adroitly applies his poetry to the paradox of Schrödinger's Cat (SC). SC was basically a thought experiment. If you had a box and you told someone there was a cat in the box, then asked is the cat alive or dead? Well, of course, you have a 50/50 chance of answering correctly, but the truth is that the cat is neither alive nor dead until you open the box. This paradox is juxtaposed against the naming of things. Why do parents spend so much time on naming a child? It bestows dignity upon the child. It says you are an individual among the herd, and it will give meaning to the child’s existence later. It also gives meaning to the namer’s existence and becomes a mode of sacramental communion with the world. I loved the irony of this poem because my protagonist is named George Orwell Hill. But even more than the observation that they are both Hills, only different, is the fact that George Orwell was known for all the new words and concepts he named in his novel, 1984.

That hill has a name to

separate it from all the

other hills that have their

own names or no name

It’s just a hill What we

gave it is just a name

But it’s hard to separate

the deaths on that hill

from all the other deaths

on all the other hills

And all the names of all

the dead on all the hills

Bill’s final poem is in the Epilogue on page 315 and concludes the story….

In Chapter Fourteen, page 84 of the Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam, we have another poem by Bill McCloud, author of The Smell of the Light. In this descriptive verse, you can almost conjure up the smell of bodies that were ubiquitous in Vietnam. The smell permeated your clothing, the insides of the helicopters, and pretty much lingered in the air around you and infected the currents of your mind. It was, as Bill says, ‘An aroma of uncertainty.’

The smell of death

combines the scents of

almonds

fish

garlic

roses and

shit and also

something undefined

An aroma of uncertainty

A fear of the future

In Chapter Twenty-Five, page 192,…

In Chapter Six, page 27, of the Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam, there is another poetic interlude by the author. This free verse is an exploration of a wall that exists between enlisted and officer. On a deeper level, the walls that separate humans into stereotypical groups. The verse questions why any wall would exist that separates us from our humanity.

Black from white.

Penis from Clitoris Magnus (-a, -um).

All Hail Vishnu

Protector of the thick of head

Breeder of superstition

Creator of the White-trash limbo

Curator of the Museum of Unnatural Stupidity

Banish thyself from the King’s Garden of Cups.

In Chapter Seven, page 37, there is more free verse concerned with other recurring themes in the book. Religion and moral ambivalence and their role in war. G.O. is a fence-sitter when it comes to religion but is opposed to orthodoxy and is rebellious against all authority. His psychological doppelgänger, Locker, is a true atheist. True in the sense that he is much more tolerant of orthodox religion than his counterpart, G.O. In this poem, G.O. is mind traveling while staring at a picture of the crucifixion, by Matthias Grünewald:

Why include poems in novels? How do they affect the reading of the novel – as well as the poems? There are many reasons to include poetry in your prose. Basically, you have personal reasons and structural reasons. Many contemporary poets have made a stab at writing novels, a venue that gives them an opportunity to include and share their poetry to broader audience, an audience that might not ordinarily read poetry. A structural reason would be to entice the reader to slow down and smell the coffee. While reading a novel, you may come across a poem. What happens? You stop and think about the poem or you skip over it and continue. The author is suggesting you stop for a moment and think about what you are reading.

Poetry can serve many different functions within the novel. These range from ornamental, used as epigraphs (short quotes at the beginning of the book or each chapter) or giving the characters something to say when words fail them. Some books use the poetry to enhance character development and for foreshadowing some future action that will drive the story. Poetry can also be used to call attention to an emotion or action, that prose would not sufficiently explain. In…

Is one of those questions that has been around for quite awhile. Probably, first used legitimately by radio and TV technicians before it was appropriated by the Timothy Leary and the counterculture of the 60s – Turn on, tune in, drop out. Exactly what we were supposed to be ‘tuning into’ escaped me…I suppose I was operating on a different frequency than Timmy. Your frequency being the number of cycles or waves that you operate on or the measurement of your brain waves. Since that time, it has metamorphosed into music, movies, and now has become a staple in the new age gurus’ arsenal of spiritual awareness. Ohmmmmmmm…

The first time I actually considered that humans have frequencies that were unique, and that all of us march to different beats, and that life itself is asynchronous; I was sitting on the ramp of my helicopter in 1969, reading Moby Dick. I came across these lines by Herman Melville:

What is Real? Asked the Rabbit one day. Real isn't how you are made! It's a thing that happens to you! – Velveteen Rabbit

One of the questions that arise most often from readers, “Are these stories in Boot real?” is also one of the most difficult to answer. The Boot is a fictionalized account of a group of Marine helicopter crew chiefs in Vietnam. I cannot emphasize the word fiction, enough. As to what is real? That’s a different story. The war in Vietnam was all too real for those who fought there and for the Vietnamese that lived through decades of war. For many, back in America, the Vietnam war became real when the telegram came in the mail or when Johnny came home with only one arm or one leg. What is real, then becomes a matter of perception. If a six-year-old runs across the lawn and spikes a football, is that just as real to him/her as the high school,…