Dust & A Shadow: A Cold War Kid at the End of Days?

I’m not given to hysterics about Armageddon…but lately, I’ve been losing sleep…

Like the falling leaves, and the shifting past
Sometimes the treasured things are not the things that last.
And we know where we stand – between fear and desire:
With one fist raised in anger, with one foot in the fire.

We are dust and a shadow… under the naked light
We are dust and a shadow… wishing that everything stood still tonight.
We are dust and a shadow… the dream of history.
We are the hungry ghosts, crying “Remember me, Remember me!”

~Shriekback

Sometimes it’s difficult to know where to draw the line on my blog when mentioning current events. When I started this blog in the final days of December 2020, I stated that I had no wish to contribute to all the rage, hate and “fear porn” that constitutes so much of what’s on the web. And yet, we are living in extraordinary times, dear readers…and there are things happening all around us of such gravity and consequence that it sometimes seems impossible not to mention them…even on a blog about collecting toy cars.

The house on the outskirts of Denver that I have lived in for over 12 years now was built in 1955, and has a massive basement of solid concrete walls. Despite less than adequate ventilation and some occasional dampness problems common to old houses, it is a place where I have always felt surpremely safe. Down here is where I have built my 1:64 Empire you all come to this blog to read about. Down here is where I am often happiest. Despite the solidity of these walls, however, my basement is not a bomb shelter…and in light of recent events, one has to wonder…how safe are any of us, really?

How I ironic that I was raised in the late 70’s and 80’s in a time of uncertainty about the end of “The Cold War.” I well remember the histrionics of commentators of a certain political bent hyperventilating about how “Cowboy Ronnie” was going to “blow us all to kingdom come” with “his” arms race. Remember the much talked-about made-for-TV movie “The Day After,” which aired on ABC on November 20, 1983? I was one of the millions who watched it-the legend goes that even Ronnie and Nancy themselves watched it! Every once in a while, some of that fearmongering spooked me a little…and yet, somehow I kept my faith that cooler heads would prevail, and that my world wouldn’t end in mushroom clouds. I wasn’t afraid then. I feel more so now: “cooler heads” are in short supply these days.

Of Late I Think of Neville Chamberlain and “Peace In Our Time”…

Throughout my life, British prime-minister Neville Chamberlain has been held as a textbook example of the futility of “appeasement.” The lesson goes that you never appease a dictator, you never “negotiate with terrorists,” you never give the bully what he wants in the foolish belief that he’ll go away.

Seems like a sage lesson to take. And yet, in 1938, the enemy did not have a stockpile of weapons capable of ending all life on the planet within a matter of hours, a capability that the Russians today most definitely have. Now as then, there is no question of who “the bad guy” is, no question of who is the aggressor. But I can’t help but wonder…if Nazi Germany had been capable of such destruction back then, would we still heap so much scorn on a man who did indeed attempt appeasement in a vain effort to keep the world out of war? Or is it possible that, today, there’s a wider goal to consider?

I take no stand on this question; I see validity in both sides of the argument…I just wonder aloud. Yet, I try not to wonder too much, as I spend a late November Saturday afternoon in the basement enjoying my 1:64 scale world. Its long been my belief that only a maniac would actually seek to survive a nuclear holocaust; far better, it seems to me, to be vaporized on impact: a moment’s agony in place of months or even years of hell. I suppose its for the best that I feel that way, considering that there are some things I’m not safe from in my basement.

Perhaps this is all bluffing, perhaps it is just “saber-rattling.” All I can say is this: January 20, 2025 cannot come soon enough! Of course, whether we’re any safer even then is no sure bet, but at least there’s hope! In the meantime, keep your loved ones close, enjoy the time you have…and if you’re the praying kind, you might want to be extra penitent in the days to come…

Well, that post was a bit of a downer, eh, dear readers? Let me see if I can snap out of it and get back to something fun for my next post…