Report from Tomorrow

Dear San Francisco,

As you read this, consider that tomorrow has already happened.

I’m 14 hours ahead of you and can report back

that it’s going to be a great day.

Weather hot, with a slight cooling breeze at the river.

If you do a workshop at a school with other music teachers and a class of kids,

I’m happy to say that you’re going to have a great time.

Dinner at the restaurant will be spectacularly delicious and the company?

 Delightful!

You’ll go to sleep with an acoustic fan, much nicer than air-conditioning

            and you’ll remember those hot summer nights in New Jersey as a child,

                        crickets outside and the innocence of the world unbroken

                                    By TV news.

And when it does come, there’s the calm reassurance of Walter Cronkite and

            nowhere a sign of the mean-spirited Bill O’Reilly and company.

                       

(They were around, we just didn’t give them a platform back then

 and raise bigotry, arrogance and stupidity to a national norm.

    They kept their proper place as the ranting of my friend’s drunken father. )

The world will keep up its spin tomorrow and there will be the daily dose of

       unbearable suffering, much of which could have been avoided by children

going to schools with teachers teaching with love and compassion, teachers

            teaching love and compassion.

But there will be plenty of them doing just that tomorrow.

Of course, Fox news will never report it. If you’re not in a constant low-grade state of fear and cynicism, they can’t control you.   

By the time you live the glorious day I’m reporting,

          I’ll already be living the next tomorrow.

I’ll keep you posted.

Love,

Your man in Bangkok