Re-visited Reflections from a Discombobulated Patriot

 Re-visited Reflections from a Discombobulated Patriot

The United State of McMerica (2010)

Broken English Readymade (2016)

The Untied State of America (2017)

By Tom Wachunas

“Everybody has their own America, and then they have pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see…So the fantasy corners of America…you’ve pieced them together from scenes in movies and music and lines from books. And you live in your dream America that you’ve custom-made from art and schmaltz and emotions just as much as you live in your real one.”

― Andy Warhol

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”  ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

   Ah, Independence Day. Celebration. But these days, more intensely than ever before, I feel bothered, bewildered, befuddled by the spiritual malaise that has settled across our land - a viral cloud of discontent, disagreement, even despair. Discombobulation. My country, ‘tis to thee we bring our proud plethora of time-worn logos, promos, memes, and mottos. Yet despite the sheer weight of corrupted values and confused, conflicting voices that threaten to crush us once and for all, we’re still standing. Terribly wounded and divided, yes; morally destitute, starved for solutions, hungry for purpose and meaning, yes. Utterly splintered, yes.

   But amazingly, still standing. What could account for this? To whom do we owe our thanks for continuing to somehow survive our myriad self-made disasters and depravities? If this isn’t evidence of God’s merciful patience with his disconnected creation, I don’t know what is. Frankly, I’m mildly surprised we haven’t yet altered those promising and profound words on our coins and currency – “In God We Trust” – to read “In Us We Trust.” Would that be independence, or simply arrogance?

   Still standing. And here in 2019, I’m still standing by what I shared here back in October of 2017. You regular readers have seen this art of mine before.

 https://artwach.blogspot.com/2017/10/indivisible.html

   So I repeat what I wrote then, with this added thought: Nothing changes if nothing changes.

   …“Political” art? That’s too easy and convenient a descriptor. Try ‘spiritual exercises,’ or ‘meditations,’ or even prayers.  The pleas, the please, of a hurt heart. An S.O.S. – Save Our Soul. …One nation, under God?

   The American flag, abstracted on grocery bags. Grocery bags – containers of consumables, sustenance, nutrients, sanitation necessities. Grocery bags – containers for disposables, things unwanted, trash. White stripes scratched with letters. Detached syllables. Words and phrases once familiar, now fragmented, foreign, fraught.

   What do we stand for, and when? In whose presence? Untied, we kneel. The American Scream. Forgive us, Father, for we know not what we do.

   Not yet, anyway.