Great News, The Modernist's Icarus and Music Boxes in My New Life

My youngest biological sibling, A_, has preposed to his girlfriend and she said yes. I’m proud of him. I really am. He and I were close during the good times back at home on our cattle and tobacco farm. In the early 2000s we had a restaurant too. A_ and I would work the rushes, and order food to eat in the office watching SpongeBob or doing our home work. We were home schooled and that was the beginning of our new home school group in Northern Kentucky. My older siblings never had the opportunity to be a part of a tight nit group that was then taking place for me, and A_. My older brother would move out and mom had to take a part time teaching job at a Catholic school and that left us two alone at home a lot. Those were the best times. I would cook chicken parmigiano for us and we would climb up a ladder to our roof. Our farm home was way up on a hill in the foothills of Appalachia so we could see the road to our home a few hills over and a couple of miles up. So if mom was coming home we could see her coming with plenty of time to climb off the roof and presume whatever jobs or schoolwork that was left for us.

A_ was the quiet one generally happy to play with his toys while the battles between my parents or with my parents and older brother fumed. When he moved out it gave A_ and I a chance to nurture home life. We had a good home school group and a good church youth group. We drove an hour to Versailles where my father was preaching. Our youth group were all terrific singers and we would all harmonize the 4 different parts. We all loved music like Simon & Garfunkel so on the hour ride home A_ and I would sing The Sound of Silence. I would sing Simon’s baritone and A_ would do Garfunkel’s lead. We have it down to a tight duet.

My neighbor is a Music Box junky. He’s a connoisseur. He collects, restores, and maintains the most beautiful collection you ever saw. His house is like a music box museum except its not a museum. Its a normal lifestyle for us. It’s what humans were like before coloured TVs invaded the home. We used to do stuff, projects, hobbies, reading, journaling, cleaning gutters, getting by until the day we die. I rarely watch TV even though I keep up with it because you have no other choice between co-workers and family. There are some good shows on now, I must say. White Collar, Leverage, Minx, and some good films too. Villainess was pretty cutting edge. But I just tend to just play piano, read my bucket list novels, work on my vehicle, and jump off bluffs into river bends (outdoor excursions, etc.) It’s a battle to stay “alive” these days when the normality is to succumb to mere zombies between fast food, entertainment “news,” and Florida Man tabloids. And you have affirm to your co-workers that you are also a zombie. Make sure they know you are just as miserable as they are. In all actuality I go on vacation the moment I clock-out because I’m living my life to the fullest whether or not it’s yoga today, reading my favourite book, practicing that Chopin Nocturne I always wanted to play or visiting my Music Box friend. Every time he shows me his new addition or project I am transported to a Joycian tale or some other Modernist; his home is as such. The Early 20th c. could possibly be the most intelligent humans ever endeavored to be collectively and the inner workings of a music box affirms this to me. A favourite painting of the Modernist my Joyce teacher showed in class was Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel: Icarus drowning in the sea while everyone else continues on with their daily businesses. When I read literature of the early 20th c. I read a high water mark in language, syntax, and grammar that will never be topped because it is obsolete now just like Icarus flying to the sun and drowning without anyone ever noticing, OMG LOL FML.

Last updated June 17, 2023