Lenoir, North Carolina. Living Proof

Lenoir, North Carolina is living proof that Alfred Hitchcock indeed is dead. For if he were still alive, scenes from Lenoir would undoubtedly rumble through the bedrooms of people across the world in the form of nightmare images. Memories rebroadcast in fitful dreams would crawl out of scenes etched from screens of television and movies that are part of the story that is told here - in that other universe called Lenoir.

The right word is somehow missing. "Wild" is not it. "Dangerous" completely misses the point. †here is the hint of another universe here that speaks of different laws and different measures of success and failure, different values of comprehension. Here there seems an air of finality. Somehow a judgement has been rendered. There is a sense of it all being over, of being tested and having failed, an understanding that the whole world is sinking into crumbles, falling from light down, down into darkness.

But then there is Pink here too. And the color Pink brings a counter beat, a ray not so much a hope of rescue as an intention to hit the bottom with dignity. No Drinking Please, and another pink bow. OK, so we go down. OK, but we will remember sunshine and I will still remember love, because it once was given to me. And somehow I do know this. That when it is all over, it will not be through. I will still smile at you. And when it is all over, then finally - maybe you will smile back at me. That's my love that I give to you.

And don't blame Lenoir. Go there and see for yourself. It is a nice town, a pretty place. There is beauty there and art and sunshine. It is not America but America IS Lenoir. It is good to see this in a small place where it can be comprehended and understood. And it is important that we know where we really are and can see where we are clearly headed.