{"id":25060,"date":"2013-07-26T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T06:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=25060"},"modified":"2013-07-26T06:00:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T06:00:32","slug":"concerning-two-lifebuoys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=25060","title":{"rendered":"Concerning two Lifebuoys"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — nothing strategic or serious, just dropping a little beauty your way ]
\n.<\/p>\n

Here’s a DoubleQuote<\/strong> that doesn’t fit my usual graphic format, but that gives me enough delight that I thought I’d post it anyway.<\/p>\n

It all begins with a friend pointing me to this video — it’s quite beautiful, it’s a commercial, and it’s promoting a Lifebuoy<\/strong> campaign, in their words<\/a>, “to help reduce the deaths of two million children before their fifth birthday” by means of their “handwashing behaviour change programmes”:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Okay: so I like the video very much, but I know nothing about Lifebuoy, their politics, their labor practices, the things that might make me hesitate to be quite as delighted by the video as I might be if there wasn’t a massive “international” tied in with the short and moving narrative. So I googled “Lifebuoy”…<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

And found this poem, which has nothing to do with soap but a great deal to do with telling a short and beautiful story — albeit with the simplicity of words, of poetry:<\/p>\n

\n

Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy<\/strong>
\n –Thomas Lux
\n.<\/p>\n

For some semitropical reason
\nwhen the rains fall
\nrelentlessly they fall<\/p>\n

into swimming pools, these otherwise
\nbright and scary
\narachnids. They can swim
\na little, but not for long<\/p>\n

and they can\u2019t climb the ladder out.
\nThey usually drown\u2014but
\nif you want their favor,
\nif you believe there is justice,
\na reward for not loving<\/p>\n

the death of ugly
\nand even dangerous (the eel, hog snake,
\nrats) creatures, if<\/p>\n

you believe these things, then
\nyou would leave a lifebuoy
\nor two in your swimming pool at night.<\/p>\n

And in the morning
\nyou would haul ashore
\nthe huddled, hairy survivors<\/p>\n

and escort them
\nback to the bush, and know,
\nbe assured that at least these saved,
\nas individuals, would not turn up<\/p>\n

again someday
\nin your hat, drawer,
\nor the tangled underworld<\/p>\n

of your socks, and that even\u2014
\nwhen your belief in justice
\nmerges with your belief in dreams\u2014
\nthey may tell the others<\/p>\n

in a sign language
\nfour times as subtle
\nand complicated as man\u2019s<\/p>\n

that you are good,
\nthat you love them,
\nthat you would save them again.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

**<\/p>\n

The video and the poem are very different — yet closely connected, coming to me as they did, hot on one another’s heels the other day. I celebrate them here as an informal DoubleQuote, with gratitude to Google<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

May I recommend, to myself when my ship comes in and to others: Thomas Lux<\/strong>, New and Selected Poems: 1975-1995<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron — nothing strategic or serious, just dropping a little beauty your way ] . Here’s a DoubleQuote that doesn’t fit my usual graphic format, but that gives me enough delight that I thought I’d post it anyway. It all begins with a friend pointing me to this video — it’s quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[526,627,320,560,741,1,259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles-cameron","category-doublequotes","category-google","category-india","category-poetry","category-uncategorized","category-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25060"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25285,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25060\/revisions\/25285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}