Lucy the Blog: the Resurrection

April 13, 2010 at 11:06 pm | Posted in Lowell | 4 Comments
Tags: jesus in a grilled cheese, orange fuzzy bear

unsinkable

Oh, hello.  It’s been awhile.

Last spring, while walking with Ashlee, Lil Nola Jane, and Lucy the Dog, I stumbled upon this abandoned, helpless bear.  An encounter that, for me, was akin to finding Jesus Christ on a grilled cheese sandwich.

I felt an immediate, profound connection with him, and the memory of his deranged smile, in the midst of grave peril, fortifies me on a near daily basis against the slings and arrows of life.

There is no more apt symbol for the depravity of man than Lowell’s canal system.  On a good day, if the tides are right or the heroic Canalwater Cleaners have been at work, the glistening waters recall Lowell’s past moniker as “Venice of America.”

On most days, however, those canals are congested with shit–extraordinary amounts of shit, from Twizzler bags to Honda engines.  And each piece of said shit can be traced to a single human being who simply didn’t give a shit.  Just dropped his shit and moved on.  It’s somebody else’s shit now.

My mother is surprised by the shit, almost to the point of disbelief.  She thinks I’m exaggerating when I explain that people in my neighborhood routinely drop trash on the sidewalk without breaking stride.  In suburban New Jersey, where she and my father raised me, there’s far less shit.  Here in Lowell, even the city government leaves its shit around at least once a year.

It can be disheartening to walk the canals and see the consequences of such selfishness, stupidity, and disregard.  And of course, if you extrapolate further and consider what else is begot by that way of (not) thinking…well, you just might toss yourself into that canal.

The shit is pervasive.  Big bank shenanigans.  Endless war.  Political ineptitude.  Tea-bagging retards and Nazi-boning infidels.  Pretty much all the columnists at the Lowell Sun and every boozy T rider who curses in front of kids.  What’s up with their shit?

Early Easter morning, a guy who worked at my dad’s company was murdered with his fiance in Jersey City.  They were both shot square in the head on the sidewalk in front of their home.  Execution style.  They’d just come home from their engagement party.  Two 19-year-old girls and one 19-year-old male were arrested.  The male was charged with three unrelated murders.

That, dear reader, is some low-down dirty shit.  Shit that’ll break your heart right in half.

When our canal systems swell with so much shit, it’s easy to go under.  But look at this bear.  Surrounded by all that is awful, he perseveres and floats on.  He looks to the sun and he smiles.

It’s a defiant smile that hints at insanity, but defiance and insanity are required in this modern century.  For without them, one could easily drown in despair.  The bear knows this.  And whenever I start to lose sight of it, I think of him, belly up and smiling.  He may be worse for the wear, this bear, but he’s still got a pulse and a smile.  They haven’t finished him yet.

It’s been a long time gone for Lucy the Blog.  But we return today with a fuzzy bear’s frame of mind.

Life is cruel.  Life is hard.  But above all, life is beautiful.  Smile at the sun.  Fight with defiance and insanity.  And keep floating through the shit.  There are no other options.

More to come.  But in the meantime, sing us home, Bruce.