≡ Menu

The Distance: “And the light has been turned down on the age of reason / Replaced by blinding fires that burn wild across the region”

[Note: I don’t say this often but I value and appreciate all those who stop by this far corner of the Net from time to time in these most extraordinary times. ]

They have put something in the water
They seek a cure for the conversation
They stole a march on your indecision

And the first to fall is laughter
Just to quell the unoffended
They seek to murder your opinion

And the light has been turned down on the age of reason
Replaced by blinding fires that burn wild across the region
For the wrong to rule
The good must just stand idly by

So I need you more than ever
Need your hands in this resistance
If we’re going to go the distance
And if I ever doubt it
I think about my future
And if I want to live there

And the world outside is wondrous wide for a reason
If you can’t decide, you must blow your own mind for that reason
For the wrong to rule
The good must just stand idly by
And that’s no lie

It can be hard to know what feeling
What with all the lies that you’re reading
If it’s hard to say, you may mean it

Don’t be lost thinking about tomorrow
When today is what you are living
Make today your new beginning

The light has been turned down on the age of reason
Replaced by blinding fires that burn wild across the region
For the wrong to rule
The good must just stand idly by

So I need you more than ever
Need your hands in this resistance
If we’re going to go the distance
And if I ever doubt it
I think about my future
And if I want to live there

And the world outside is wondrous wide for a reason
If you can’t decide, you must blow your own mind for that reason
For the wrong to rule
The good must just stand idly by
And that’s no lie

So I need you more than ever
Need your hands in this resistance
If we’re going to go the distance
And if I ever doubt it
I think about my future
And if I want to live there

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • mmack August 14, 2020, 4:31 PM

    Gerard,

    Thank you for hosting this far corner of the Internet. And for letting us stop by and say hello 👋🏻

    It’s been a weird one. But as Hunter S. Thompson wrote: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

    Thank you once again sir.

  • Rust August 14, 2020, 5:03 PM

    You are an antidote to the insanity. Much gratitude.

  • MIKE GUENTHER August 14, 2020, 5:16 PM

    I echo the sentiments of the two previous commentators. One of my first stops on the WWW every morning.

  • ghostsniper August 14, 2020, 5:22 PM

    There is no distance, just a goal.

  • julie August 14, 2020, 5:31 PM

    We appreciate you, too, Gerard. Very much.

  • Joel August 14, 2020, 6:58 PM

    I like your site. I come often, to take in a few whiffs of sanity.

  • Cate August 14, 2020, 8:52 PM

    Thank you….I stop by this little corner of the interest almost daily and I’m never sorry. Keep up the good fight – there’s more of us than of them….

  • andre August 14, 2020, 9:31 PM

    Awesome song.

  • Minta Marie Morze August 14, 2020, 11:01 PM

    It is I who am filled with gratitude for your existence. My brother’s birthday is Oct 14, so you can imagine how upset he was when for days I was despondent during the festivities and I kept going to the computer to bring up your site several times a day, hoping for news, during that week when you died. You’d been an important part of my life for a long time even before that.

    Thank you for keeping on keeping on.

    And thank you for the video. I’ve loved watching Laurence Fox in Detective shows and costume dramas for years. How great this new personae is.

    You help keep me within reaching distance of the neighborhood of Sanity.

    (My brother visits you too.)

  • Mitch Strand August 14, 2020, 11:12 PM

    Laurence Fox is an excellent actor. He was a great complement to Kevin Whateley on BBC’s Inspector Lewis, the sequel to Inspector Morse. He’s also the son of Edward Fox, who portrayed XXX Corps commander Brian Horrocks in A Bridge Too Far.

    It’s not right what the woke have tried to do to him in the U.K. It’s good to see him fighting back, creating his own art. And the gorgeous platinum blonde singing with him is Izo Fitzroy. Her mere presence singing with him is a testament to her courage.

    Hopefully, England is not done, after all.

  • bob sykes August 15, 2020, 4:50 AM

    The Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, ended around 1800. It’s been dead for 200 years. It was replaced by the Romantic Era, which still has a great deal of influence, although it, also, has been replaced by Modernism and Post Modernism, and whatever.

    The distinguishing character of Romanticism is an explicit rejection of reason and science in favor of feeling and intuition. Think, Bach vs. Beethoven, Locke vs. Marx.

    All left wing political and social movements are Romantic, Naziism being the extreme example, with its Aryan mythology and mysticism, but including Fascism and Communism and, of course, the French revolution. Rousseau is often touted as its spokesman, but you could make a case for Mao.

  • Humdeedee August 15, 2020, 6:25 AM

    I think I found you through a link from Maggie’s Farm, too recently, I’m afraid – maybe 5 years ago, but better late than never so goes the cliche. You post stories, link articles and amuse us with memes by turn or all at once comical, sarcastic, pointed or poignant, and delight us with your insightful opinions and essays, beguiling us with your poetry, often punctuated with a music video to accompany a theme. A feast, in other words, from which to partake at our pleasure, provided free of charge. Now that I think of it, other than a donation when you went through your ordeal by fire, I’ve not paid for the privilege of the benefits you provide. I shall do so now, just to show my appreciation for the time and thought you put into my go-to place on the web. Oh, and I never pass up reading the comments posted by your regulars. Always worth the time.

  • Marica August 15, 2020, 7:41 AM

    And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
    Whereunder crawling coop’t we live and die,
    Lift not thy hand to It for help– for It
    Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.

    Thank God we have American Digest to click on once or twice a day! Thanks, Gerard.

  • bruce wayne August 15, 2020, 1:21 PM

    We appreciate you too! I come here every day

  • PA Cat August 15, 2020, 2:45 PM

    I’ve been hanging out on Gerard’s site on a regular basis for at least 16 years, but it was his awesome Wokeness in hiring a Managing Editor of a different sex, color, and species two years ago that made daily visits to AD a necessity.

    (This is a none-too-subtle request for a new photo of the clever and lovely Miss Olive.)

    [Promises made. Promises kept. — Gerard]

    That tail is batting away all those haters. 🔥 from r/aww

  • LP August 15, 2020, 5:08 PM

    Thanks for all the wonderful things that you’ve been posting lately. I linked over from the Maggie’s Farm site and have been stopping by daily.

  • PA Cat August 15, 2020, 6:13 PM

    Many thanks, Gerard. Long may she reign over your keyboard as well as your heart.

  • Bill Jones August 16, 2020, 5:02 AM

    Thanks for the Hopkins: I thought of him only yesterday but Pied Beauty (hint)

  • Nori August 16, 2020, 9:32 PM

    Did’nt watch the vid,but read the poem,because I have learned that Mr V’s poetic postings are quite interesting.
    It made me think,”hmm,this is song-like…” So I watched the video.
    Lo and Behold. It IS a song. Quite a good one.
    Laurence is indeed of the Brit Fox family,but he’s the son of James Fox,Edward’s brother,who is also a very fine actor. Seriously talented family,the whole lot.

    Madame Olive’s face encapsulates the yin-yang of felines. Sleek,darkly beautiful. Golden eyes,ever watching…

    God save England. God save America.

  • ghostsniper August 17, 2020, 7:28 AM

    Olive looks pissed. Someone harshed her mellow. There will be hell to pay. Maybe that litter box will get tipped over, again.

  • Vanderleun August 17, 2020, 1:33 PM

    I have that litter box spot welded to the catroom floor.