Can’t remember the last time I had the barbecue going, out back at our place in California. There’s been so much smoke from wildfires, so many ‘Spare The Air’ days, as they’re called out here, that I decided to put backyard grilling on the back burner, so to speak.
The aroma of barbecue smoke may be pleasing, but when wildfires are burning millions of acres, doing without grilling is what you do.
So, at last, a couple of evenings ago, the air had cleared, and I was able to pull the sooty cover off my grill, and fire it up. And I don’t know why, but for some reason, this sense of spirituality came over me, even though I’m not particularly religious. That’s happened, before, when I’m grilling. Maybe it’s the peacefulness of a balmy evening, soft breezes and — this evening — seeing a neighbor’s big dog stretching out, seemingly without a care in the world. No COVID worries. No angst about nutty politics. That big dog seemed only interested in a toy it occasionally was sniffing at, and picking up and dropping, before stretching, once again.
Listening to the sizzling sounds of grilling, William Wordsworth’s 1807 sonnet, somehow, was in my mind. “The world is too much with us…” His words were floating around. But, thankfully – in those moments – the world was not too much with me. Tomorrow would be another day.
Image result for Public Domain Pictures of The World is Too Much With Us Sonnet
And, indeed it was, when I read about the Trump team’s efforts to restrict mail-in ballots… during a pandemic, for God’s sake!
And when I read, not for the first time, that President Trump wants his political opponents to be indicted and jailed.
And, when I read about the president slamming Joe Biden “for backing Obama-era fair housing regulations, painting his support for it as Biden waging ‘war on the suburbs.’”
And when I read, in a Fox News story, what Democratic Senator Chris Coons said, during the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearing, that he has “been flooded with calls, text messages and emails from Delawareans asking a simple question: Why is the Senate rushing to confirm President Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, but not doing anything to help millions of American families get through the COVID-19 pandemic?”
And, when I read about President Trump sharing a photo-shopped picture “mocking Joe Biden as a nursing-home resident…”
Usually, having been in PR, I measure and mince words. But not this time! What’s going on, now, is ludicrous, but not in any amusing way. People who ought to know better seem to be doing everything in their power to snuff out the nation’s essence.
Yeah…for just a little while barbecuing out back, that 1807 sonnet was in the background. And it was just – without getting too soppy – me and my family, soft breezes and that big dog, lazing away in our neighbor’s yard.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.