OptimismCertainly there are many examples of the awful consequences of man's ego, but my favorite is the 1900 Galveston hurricane, the horrifying self-assuredness of Victorians and the unflappable certainty in an invented forecast. Imagine watching the great bathhouses fall into the ocean the way you, tired, fall into bed at the end of a long day, socks still clinging to your ankles. Or the sisters in St. Mary's, tying the orphans in long strands with clotheslines around their waists; when the water came up, the sea merely slurped the noodle-chains and pulled everyone into the water. Later, men stood on the destroyed beach and knew they could have listened to the reports from Havana, warned the town, dashed off a telegraph. You can always do something. But to have such great unflappability, such supreme self-confidence— once I knew someone who was always right. I envied how easily the world cleaved to him, or how he thought it did. While I worried, he moved with the grace of animals who know why the sun, water, fish are all placed in easy reach. Then, that animal is eaten by a larger animal. But its last thought is I'm going to beat this! and even though you've seen this episode before, you root for the zebra, the baby warthog, the gazelle bending for a sip of cool water. The ego of the middle food chain. The easy stupidity of man. And the howling storm—here it comes, listen, you might even hear the Cuban friars crying at you, please, get off the beach, my god, you can save yourself. Christina Olson is the author of a book of poems, Before I Came Home Naked. Her poetry has recently appeared in The Southern Review, River Styx, Hobart, Gastronomica, and RHINO. She is the poetry editor of Midwestern Gothic, and lives both in Georgia and online at www.thedrevlow-olsonshow.com. |