Thanks so much Emily, I really appreciate that because, as you know, everything you create is a struggle and you're never really pleased (especially at this rate of writing here on Substack...do I have to write less and better?....maybe...), so I'm so glad you say that. Cheers pal :)
Extraordinary champagne left behind to become ordinary flat wine. The sparkling bubbles burst. But the pop is heard, yet never felt fully and oysters shucked into the sea. Pearls unpolished luster can no longer reflect the beauty of the mother that seems to know more, yet only smiles. Net worthy.
Powerful piece Jonathan. The tragedy of the have’s and have not’s as old as time, but your telling is naked and immediate. I wasn’t expecting that sister to reveal her soft underbelly, which made the tragedy feel even more sharp. Pain on top of pain on top of pain. Nothing could be more true about our current leadership than this sentence: “It’s easier to destroy everything than to face up to themselves or to feel the pain of their emptiness.” Ugh. Brilliant. Heavy.
I remember we chatted about how we are all caught up in The Machine and those Haves, even though they may be reprehensible, are also victims in one sense (not the sense they keep blathering on about but you know what I mean). I think that rampant inequality is the death of us all, and I'm trying to write ways that make this politically obvious, but yeah, it is a bit bloomin' Heavy ;)
Thanks so much as always Kimberly for reading and being here :)
You're going to love tomorrow's piece then I think, where the extraordinary and the ordinary completely lose their bearings and become fused into one :)
Thanks as always Fotini. It makes me happy to see you.
It's crazy right, but so fine, oh so orange segment throwing, raven feather blowing, great truth knowing fine :) Thought you might like it, which was a bit presumptuous, but hey, who cares, lets just let the dandelion fruit blow away in the wind and be joyful for small mercies.
The difference between those who live on one side of life and those who live on the other, you portrayed this brilliantly Jonathan. I don't think we will ever see the division closed will we? Every day we experience this story!
I was relieved at the end that the sister proved, if not her compassion but her understanding of the destruction and utter misery and lonliness wealth can cause, it was unexpected but I am glad it was there... if only that could be reflected elsewhere today!
Bravo for articulating the tragedy of our time so eloquently.
The tragedy of our time is exactly right, nicely put Susie. Inequality and protected privilege is always the cause of so much misery that in the end no one wins, not even the so called privileged.
The poor sister in a way, she knows she’s a vampire but she doesn’t know how to stop being one.
A big heartfelt thanks to you Susie for reading and getting my writing. I’m genuinely honoured and grateful 🙏🏼 :)
Ha! At 2 1/2, Ranger has decided he no longer likes the taste of his dog food. Seeing we have a massive size bag to go through, we have been manipulated into embellishing his bowl with bits of hamburg , cooked on the grill with charcoal, charred to perfection, med well, topped with a light sprinkling of sharp cheddar. Then garnished with a teaspoon of maple yogurt and a sprig of parsley. We are so well trained, aren’t we?
That happened to Esther (Benny's prequel), we had a tonne of food she suddenly didn't want any more so we spiced it up as well. She'd eat around the bits she didn't like! Trained us good she did 🤣
While reading this, I got the image of Trump's daughter, the tall blond one with no soul. I think humans are pack animals, but if they are raised to think they are above the pack, to detest the pack, then they are doomed to a kind of loneliness that is unfixable and they cling to all the trappings to try to fill that hole. I have known a goodly number of wealthy people and they all share that weird awkwardness, fragility, and loneliness. thanks buddy.
Exactly. You got it in one Wes. That's exactly what I'm talking about, that weird awkwardness, fragile loneliness that comes with delusional class entitlement. Good, thanks to you pal, it's always nice when the thing you're mumbling gets heard :)
Yeah, it’s deeply reassuring to be understood, no question. On a similar note, I would say that most of the wealthy live in a state of fear. Fear of being asked for $$ assistance, fear of losing their $$, fear of being discovered as being no better than the rest of us and indeed, likely, a lot less in quality, integrity, decency, kindness, thoughtfulness and that is why they try to scorn those attributes as only belonging to “losers”. These are the very best qualities of being a human and oftentimes, the hardest to acquire and hold on to.
Couldn't agree more Wes. That's what I mean with the sister character saying “The price is your soul,” and then warns the narrator to "keep the fuck away from us...we’ll chew you up and spit you out just for the fun of it, we can’t help ourselves, we’re angry, hateful, fucking vampires and we’ll destroy you and then we’ll hate you for letting us do it.” I mean it might sound a bit much but all that stuff you mention above is what I mean. In some ways wealth, and especially inequality is an evilness that robs us all of our humanity. I guess whats going on with this vampirical billionaire class is proof enough of the end result.
I certainly recognized the desperation in her tone, and it seems she had just enough humanity left to warn him but no more than that. I used to play tennis with a rich man, who would brag about his latest contract with Honeywell for $29 million etc and I would say, “Too bad your serve still sucks beyond belief. How much are you paying that tennis pro for lessons because, whatever it is, you should get your money back.” and then I would shellack him mercilessly. He would ask me what was in my bank balance, I would yell over the net, “$137 dollars” and he would say, “You are living my nightmare!” and then, when it was my serve I’d say, “Buddy, your nightmare is gonna get a whole lot worse.” In that game, just to make my point, I would ace him four straight and remind him that I could do that in every game and that I didn’t pay a dime for my serve. He was my brother in law father and had no friends, except maybe me, because I never wanted anything from him. Sometimes I would tell him that I will beat him only using drop shots, or lobs or backhands, but only that one method for the entire game. He hated that but we were still friends, of a sort.
HA! That's brilliant. I must say it's funny how much you and I have in common Wes, from tennis to LSE (I just hung about in the bar but nonetheless) to writing to all kinds of stuff really. It's a lovely thing I think.
Best way to deal with the rich is want nothing because then all they've got to offer is themselves...and for some that's just too difficult ;)
I agree and maybe one day we'll be able to meet up. Did I mention that I played on the badminton club team at LSE? They never let me play in a match that was close, only if our team was far ahead or hopelessly far behind, but I really loved the practice sessions and the pub fun afterward where they would try to explain cricket to me and I would have a go at explaining baseball to them.
I had played a lot of years of volleyball and so that served me well in badminton and then later, in tennis, I was a monster at net poaching because of reflexes. My whole family has them.
My brother Chris could stand next to a dart board and snatch a dart right before it hit the board and you could barely see his arm move. He was truly a freak. Another brother had, and still has, insane eyesight. 20/15 and he's nearly 70. We had two baseballs, one with my dad's name written on it and one with no writing and another brother could throw a 80 mph fastball in 8th grade. Even with the ball whizzing by, my brother could tell which one had the signature and he could hit anything. They should have made pro players but they took an interest in drugs and the wrong kind of women. To finish the bragging, the one fastball brother could throw a golfball across our pond, 450 feet.
and surrounded by those you love, rich beyond measure. The best kind of rich .Sadly , I am pretty sure most people do not have another definition for rich other than monetary. And by the way, you never ram it down our throats, spoon fed maybe, with the likes of , oh I don’t know, Cream of Wheat 🤢, but no “ramming” involved.
Ha ha Benny likes the idea of being spoon fed cream of wheat, but he'd definitely prefer having it rammed down his throat, bloody dogs, he'll gulp down anything. 🙏🏽❤️
I fell right in to your story, which is the best compliment I can offer. Reading ,as if I am flipping pages, anxious to get to the next chapter. The absurdity of it all. The mother, or servant, what a great revelation. No outward expressions of love or kindness. Where is their ‘happy’…?
“She looked like she was smiling at a calf frolicking toward an abattoir, her smile was a warning…” He was the new toy from the other side of the tracks. A curiosity. “I knew I was just stowing away on Leonard’s privilege.”
I am really glad he did not end up being a one night stand with the sister, only to rip his heart, and be forever scarred. Here in the U.S. those who ‘have’ are running the country to the ground and below. While those who ‘have not’ , are being fed the sickly sweet lies telling them, soon very soon you will ‘have too’ just wait and see. And they believe it with their entire being. Yeah, me too, cool. And anyone who is tinted a different shade other than white , regardless of worth, are now listed in the ‘have not’ get the fuck out of America category. (Exceptions are occasionally made for Trump supporters) Some brilliant lines, Jonathan. I only picked a few, before my comment becomes longer than your story. Oh, no doubt, they never had a dog…
Yeah, that inequality and entitlement is VERY dangerous, everywhere but especaily in the US right now. I wanted to write something that illuminated how stupid it all is without ramming it down the reader's throat. Basically to bring up the lethal nature of entitlement and class, which you so rightly refer to as a major problem in the US, but from the Have not's point of view (funny how class is so ignored these days).
You're right too that everyone is supposed to want to be rich. I don't. I just want a kind and rich community of people and opportunities to do interesting things and a safe environment and you know, the stuff that makes us all happy. I sure as hell don't want all that glitters, and I don't know a single super rich person (and I have known a few unbelievably) who isn't fucked up in some strange way. Time to escape the dreams of sick people I say ;)
Well this made me think of those trying to destroy democracy in my country as well as causing suffering worldwide: this: “ The gulf in power between the Haves and the Have Not’s got worse and worse as time passed. The world got colder and darker. The only thing that seemed to matter was leather, paper, bronze, and gold. Something important and delicate, something hard to put your finger on had broken and the powerful acted more and more like Leonard’s sister said, they wanted to destroy everything, even themselves, because it was easier to be evil than it was to be good and it was easier to destroy everything than to face up to themselves or to feel the pain of their emptiness, so they went on a rampage that they themselves didn’t even know how to stop.”
Perhaps it might help me feel sorry for those in power 🤷♀️
The are without doubt almost entirely terrible people, but I do feel somewhat sorry for them too, trapped as they are in a huge superstructure of hellish expectations. Of course there are some...you know who...who deserve nothing but contempt, but the class system is killing humans at every level, even the ones who think they are winning.
Relatable! I've seen this a lot in the Philippines. And as much as I can, I now try my best to stay as far away from it as I can (and keep the girls away from it too, though it's hard... in-laws).
I didn't understand the mother/housemaid part, that threw me.
I think no one had ever said thank you to my in-laws' "helpers" (a term I think they use because "servant" makes it seem too colonial) before I came along and I make a big show of it, and the rest of the in-laws follow along, haha.
It is amazing how wealth and privilege generally brings out the worst in people. I guess the need to cooperate and collaborate, the driving force of most human societies since the beginning of time, is vital for a balanced human character. I often think of the indigenous tendency to ostracise ego maniacs while modern societies pour power and adoration onto them. Mental.
I was kinda thinking of the mother figure as the failure of parenting to instill a kind of moral strength in the powered classes and to just watch the chaos. I know it's a generalization etc. but I've found most of the cruelty and sadness in the powered classes comes from a distinct lack of parental love and genuine kindness merely for the sake of love and kindness. Everything is always to instrumental. So the father is a psycho competitive nutcase and the mother fails completely to intervene or guide in any way. Although I'm not to sure how well that worked.
I know exactly what you means about having to guide people into even being civil and polite to their "helpers," So strange.
Masterful Jonathan 🙌
Thanks so much Emily, I really appreciate that because, as you know, everything you create is a struggle and you're never really pleased (especially at this rate of writing here on Substack...do I have to write less and better?....maybe...), so I'm so glad you say that. Cheers pal :)
Extraordinary champagne left behind to become ordinary flat wine. The sparkling bubbles burst. But the pop is heard, yet never felt fully and oysters shucked into the sea. Pearls unpolished luster can no longer reflect the beauty of the mother that seems to know more, yet only smiles. Net worthy.
Yep, the party's over yet the partying continues, only some leave, lucky for them :)
Great comment Rickbee, as always
Powerful piece Jonathan. The tragedy of the have’s and have not’s as old as time, but your telling is naked and immediate. I wasn’t expecting that sister to reveal her soft underbelly, which made the tragedy feel even more sharp. Pain on top of pain on top of pain. Nothing could be more true about our current leadership than this sentence: “It’s easier to destroy everything than to face up to themselves or to feel the pain of their emptiness.” Ugh. Brilliant. Heavy.
I remember we chatted about how we are all caught up in The Machine and those Haves, even though they may be reprehensible, are also victims in one sense (not the sense they keep blathering on about but you know what I mean). I think that rampant inequality is the death of us all, and I'm trying to write ways that make this politically obvious, but yeah, it is a bit bloomin' Heavy ;)
Thanks so much as always Kimberly for reading and being here :)
Beautiful story, Jonathan. Funny how our two posts mirrored the same topic this week. It's so rare for money to actually make anyone truly rich.
That's what I thought too, we're both homing in on the root of all evil I see ;)
Excellent storytelling. Clean prose
Thanks C.J., I appreciate that :)
I hope you don’t mind if I suggest another? You might like this one too: https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathanfostersthecrow/p/the-shimmering-delicacy-of-all-things?r=17bi96&utm_medium=ios
Ordinary words arranged in extraordinary way :)
You're going to love tomorrow's piece then I think, where the extraordinary and the ordinary completely lose their bearings and become fused into one :)
Thanks as always Fotini. It makes me happy to see you.
You were right! About tomorrow's piece, which is now today's piece, which is a kind of myth-making, my friend. And yes, I love it :)
It's crazy right, but so fine, oh so orange segment throwing, raven feather blowing, great truth knowing fine :) Thought you might like it, which was a bit presumptuous, but hey, who cares, lets just let the dandelion fruit blow away in the wind and be joyful for small mercies.
The difference between those who live on one side of life and those who live on the other, you portrayed this brilliantly Jonathan. I don't think we will ever see the division closed will we? Every day we experience this story!
I was relieved at the end that the sister proved, if not her compassion but her understanding of the destruction and utter misery and lonliness wealth can cause, it was unexpected but I am glad it was there... if only that could be reflected elsewhere today!
Bravo for articulating the tragedy of our time so eloquently.
The tragedy of our time is exactly right, nicely put Susie. Inequality and protected privilege is always the cause of so much misery that in the end no one wins, not even the so called privileged.
The poor sister in a way, she knows she’s a vampire but she doesn’t know how to stop being one.
A big heartfelt thanks to you Susie for reading and getting my writing. I’m genuinely honoured and grateful 🙏🏼 :)
Ha! At 2 1/2, Ranger has decided he no longer likes the taste of his dog food. Seeing we have a massive size bag to go through, we have been manipulated into embellishing his bowl with bits of hamburg , cooked on the grill with charcoal, charred to perfection, med well, topped with a light sprinkling of sharp cheddar. Then garnished with a teaspoon of maple yogurt and a sprig of parsley. We are so well trained, aren’t we?
Just kidding about the parsley.
That happened to Esther (Benny's prequel), we had a tonne of food she suddenly didn't want any more so we spiced it up as well. She'd eat around the bits she didn't like! Trained us good she did 🤣
While reading this, I got the image of Trump's daughter, the tall blond one with no soul. I think humans are pack animals, but if they are raised to think they are above the pack, to detest the pack, then they are doomed to a kind of loneliness that is unfixable and they cling to all the trappings to try to fill that hole. I have known a goodly number of wealthy people and they all share that weird awkwardness, fragility, and loneliness. thanks buddy.
Exactly. You got it in one Wes. That's exactly what I'm talking about, that weird awkwardness, fragile loneliness that comes with delusional class entitlement. Good, thanks to you pal, it's always nice when the thing you're mumbling gets heard :)
Yeah, it’s deeply reassuring to be understood, no question. On a similar note, I would say that most of the wealthy live in a state of fear. Fear of being asked for $$ assistance, fear of losing their $$, fear of being discovered as being no better than the rest of us and indeed, likely, a lot less in quality, integrity, decency, kindness, thoughtfulness and that is why they try to scorn those attributes as only belonging to “losers”. These are the very best qualities of being a human and oftentimes, the hardest to acquire and hold on to.
Couldn't agree more Wes. That's what I mean with the sister character saying “The price is your soul,” and then warns the narrator to "keep the fuck away from us...we’ll chew you up and spit you out just for the fun of it, we can’t help ourselves, we’re angry, hateful, fucking vampires and we’ll destroy you and then we’ll hate you for letting us do it.” I mean it might sound a bit much but all that stuff you mention above is what I mean. In some ways wealth, and especially inequality is an evilness that robs us all of our humanity. I guess whats going on with this vampirical billionaire class is proof enough of the end result.
I certainly recognized the desperation in her tone, and it seems she had just enough humanity left to warn him but no more than that. I used to play tennis with a rich man, who would brag about his latest contract with Honeywell for $29 million etc and I would say, “Too bad your serve still sucks beyond belief. How much are you paying that tennis pro for lessons because, whatever it is, you should get your money back.” and then I would shellack him mercilessly. He would ask me what was in my bank balance, I would yell over the net, “$137 dollars” and he would say, “You are living my nightmare!” and then, when it was my serve I’d say, “Buddy, your nightmare is gonna get a whole lot worse.” In that game, just to make my point, I would ace him four straight and remind him that I could do that in every game and that I didn’t pay a dime for my serve. He was my brother in law father and had no friends, except maybe me, because I never wanted anything from him. Sometimes I would tell him that I will beat him only using drop shots, or lobs or backhands, but only that one method for the entire game. He hated that but we were still friends, of a sort.
HA! That's brilliant. I must say it's funny how much you and I have in common Wes, from tennis to LSE (I just hung about in the bar but nonetheless) to writing to all kinds of stuff really. It's a lovely thing I think.
Best way to deal with the rich is want nothing because then all they've got to offer is themselves...and for some that's just too difficult ;)
I agree and maybe one day we'll be able to meet up. Did I mention that I played on the badminton club team at LSE? They never let me play in a match that was close, only if our team was far ahead or hopelessly far behind, but I really loved the practice sessions and the pub fun afterward where they would try to explain cricket to me and I would have a go at explaining baseball to them.
I had played a lot of years of volleyball and so that served me well in badminton and then later, in tennis, I was a monster at net poaching because of reflexes. My whole family has them.
My brother Chris could stand next to a dart board and snatch a dart right before it hit the board and you could barely see his arm move. He was truly a freak. Another brother had, and still has, insane eyesight. 20/15 and he's nearly 70. We had two baseballs, one with my dad's name written on it and one with no writing and another brother could throw a 80 mph fastball in 8th grade. Even with the ball whizzing by, my brother could tell which one had the signature and he could hit anything. They should have made pro players but they took an interest in drugs and the wrong kind of women. To finish the bragging, the one fastball brother could throw a golfball across our pond, 450 feet.
“I just want a kind and rich community …”
and surrounded by those you love, rich beyond measure. The best kind of rich .Sadly , I am pretty sure most people do not have another definition for rich other than monetary. And by the way, you never ram it down our throats, spoon fed maybe, with the likes of , oh I don’t know, Cream of Wheat 🤢, but no “ramming” involved.
Ha ha Benny likes the idea of being spoon fed cream of wheat, but he'd definitely prefer having it rammed down his throat, bloody dogs, he'll gulp down anything. 🙏🏽❤️
I fell right in to your story, which is the best compliment I can offer. Reading ,as if I am flipping pages, anxious to get to the next chapter. The absurdity of it all. The mother, or servant, what a great revelation. No outward expressions of love or kindness. Where is their ‘happy’…?
“She looked like she was smiling at a calf frolicking toward an abattoir, her smile was a warning…” He was the new toy from the other side of the tracks. A curiosity. “I knew I was just stowing away on Leonard’s privilege.”
I am really glad he did not end up being a one night stand with the sister, only to rip his heart, and be forever scarred. Here in the U.S. those who ‘have’ are running the country to the ground and below. While those who ‘have not’ , are being fed the sickly sweet lies telling them, soon very soon you will ‘have too’ just wait and see. And they believe it with their entire being. Yeah, me too, cool. And anyone who is tinted a different shade other than white , regardless of worth, are now listed in the ‘have not’ get the fuck out of America category. (Exceptions are occasionally made for Trump supporters) Some brilliant lines, Jonathan. I only picked a few, before my comment becomes longer than your story. Oh, no doubt, they never had a dog…
Yeah, that inequality and entitlement is VERY dangerous, everywhere but especaily in the US right now. I wanted to write something that illuminated how stupid it all is without ramming it down the reader's throat. Basically to bring up the lethal nature of entitlement and class, which you so rightly refer to as a major problem in the US, but from the Have not's point of view (funny how class is so ignored these days).
You're right too that everyone is supposed to want to be rich. I don't. I just want a kind and rich community of people and opportunities to do interesting things and a safe environment and you know, the stuff that makes us all happy. I sure as hell don't want all that glitters, and I don't know a single super rich person (and I have known a few unbelievably) who isn't fucked up in some strange way. Time to escape the dreams of sick people I say ;)
No dog for these nutters, No. No. NO :)
Well this made me think of those trying to destroy democracy in my country as well as causing suffering worldwide: this: “ The gulf in power between the Haves and the Have Not’s got worse and worse as time passed. The world got colder and darker. The only thing that seemed to matter was leather, paper, bronze, and gold. Something important and delicate, something hard to put your finger on had broken and the powerful acted more and more like Leonard’s sister said, they wanted to destroy everything, even themselves, because it was easier to be evil than it was to be good and it was easier to destroy everything than to face up to themselves or to feel the pain of their emptiness, so they went on a rampage that they themselves didn’t even know how to stop.”
Perhaps it might help me feel sorry for those in power 🤷♀️
The are without doubt almost entirely terrible people, but I do feel somewhat sorry for them too, trapped as they are in a huge superstructure of hellish expectations. Of course there are some...you know who...who deserve nothing but contempt, but the class system is killing humans at every level, even the ones who think they are winning.
🙏🏽💚
Relatable! I've seen this a lot in the Philippines. And as much as I can, I now try my best to stay as far away from it as I can (and keep the girls away from it too, though it's hard... in-laws).
I didn't understand the mother/housemaid part, that threw me.
I think no one had ever said thank you to my in-laws' "helpers" (a term I think they use because "servant" makes it seem too colonial) before I came along and I make a big show of it, and the rest of the in-laws follow along, haha.
It is amazing how wealth and privilege generally brings out the worst in people. I guess the need to cooperate and collaborate, the driving force of most human societies since the beginning of time, is vital for a balanced human character. I often think of the indigenous tendency to ostracise ego maniacs while modern societies pour power and adoration onto them. Mental.
I was kinda thinking of the mother figure as the failure of parenting to instill a kind of moral strength in the powered classes and to just watch the chaos. I know it's a generalization etc. but I've found most of the cruelty and sadness in the powered classes comes from a distinct lack of parental love and genuine kindness merely for the sake of love and kindness. Everything is always to instrumental. So the father is a psycho competitive nutcase and the mother fails completely to intervene or guide in any way. Although I'm not to sure how well that worked.
I know exactly what you means about having to guide people into even being civil and polite to their "helpers," So strange.
Thanks as always Leon, hope you're well pal :)
Thanks for the comment pal, I'll have to get back to you with a proper reply...bloody tine constraints :)