Wednesday, August 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
La Belle Epoch (The Beautiful Era), 1871- 1914, was the second renaissance in Europe; this time, especially in France. With the explosion of the Impressionist painters and musicians, from Van Gogh to Debussy, art and music have always been intertwined with their respective era. While artists in Europe were developing a new form of painting, in America, a new form of music, called jazz, was being developed to match the haphazardness and changes of both those arts. Free form and expressive and different, without rules or boundaries. And we can go further, into the 1940s, when Jackson Pollock was founding the abstract impressionist movement at the same time that Charlie Bird and his peers were developing bebop. As I mentioned before, that correlation between art and music has always been there. I didn’t do any research to write this; I’m just writing from the little I know about both. Interpretive art and music, brilliant and everlasting, and stimulating to the mind and soul.
Today in Minneapolis, two children were killed in a church by some disturbed young man, who took his own life after the killing and the injuring of many. It is an occurrence that has become commonplace in the lives of our children and grandchildren. I have a confession to share with you. It is very hard for me to understand the unceasing coverage of shootings in schools, when tens of thousands of children are dying in Gaza and Ukraine. Their deaths are covered briefly on the evening news, and we move on. For me, all children matter. No child should be dying because of gun violence, or because of gangs, or even due to the actions of countries at war. It is my opinion that if we cared about the wellbeing of every child on this earth, the world would be a better place.
How would we describe the world today? What Epoch are we living in? Is it the Authoritarian Epoch, the AI Epoch, the Epoch of Global Warming, or of the Corporations, or the Corrupt, the Selfish Epoch, the Retribution Epoch?
In my opinion we are living in the Confusion Epoch! Nothing seems to make sense anymore. There are no truths or lies anymore. There are no facts, at least not reality-based facts. Up is down, and down is sideways; right is wrong. Everything is now fungible. We have lost our way! We have made the unthinkable normal; we have accepted lawlessness and chaos as a way of life. We have given our hearts away, to quote Wordsworth.
In America, we are watching what Bill Maher calls that “slow-moving coup” that will get rid of elections and democracy. Meanwhile, in China they are making America look like a 3rd World country, with their technological superiority and advancements. The world does not look at America as a beacon, as a shelter from the storm, anymore. They look at us with disgust, distrust, and disappointment. Why? Because our democracy is fast disappearing; our history is being distorted to a level where it will soon become unrecognizable. Our cities are soon going to be run by military juntas instead of by elected officials. Elected? We don’t need no stinking elections! They see our bookshelves being emptied of any information the State does not approve of. Curriculums are being determined by the State, not by qualified educators. Freedom of choice has already been diminished for women, and will be extended to the rest of us, in the near future. And, just as many in the Jewel do not see or are aware of the Guatemalan threat, Americans are just being absorbed into this dystopian reality, without any resistance. Wat a ting!
There were periods in our history when mankind could be proud of their achievements, even while some were being left behind. It was a time of optimism and hope and independence and free thinking and inventions and yearnings and enlightenment.
These days, we are going back into the 12th and 13th centuries, into another Dark Age. This earth of ours is sick and dying. All that individual good fortune that one achieves in their daily life pales in comparison to the wreckage that seems to be piling up all around us.
Maybe things aren’t as terrible as I see them, but we should at least pay attention to what is going on in our communities, our countries, our daily lives.
Glen
