Musings in the mess
February 8, 2025
By Denis O'Neill (essayist and screenwriter)
Musings 2025 ~ Musings 2023
Past as prologue. Permit me a brief book hustle. My latest tome - a gathering of wit and wisdom from these very pages in 2023 – is now available for purchase through The Common Press in Amherst, Mass. and Amazon Books.
One of the things the first three weeks of Donald Trump’s second administration has taught us is to pay attention when people tell you they could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and their followers wouldn’t care. History is important. It is cyclical and repetitive. Just like human nature. George Santayana warned us: “Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” Which is why this book - and my previous two in the Musings series (Pandemic Musings and Musings 2022) might be worth owning, particularly if you track politics, cultural shifts and world events.
“In the vein of celebrated English diarist Samuel Pepys, author O’Neill weaves his observations about contemporary politics, daily life and culture into an overview of America that is at once poetic, revealing, depressing and forever searching for people, events and behavior that define who we are.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
A few verses from “December 31 ~ The Year in Doggerel” “What a year for the rearview mirror,
The dumpster, the shredder, the bin. Forget about sloth and gluttony,
’23 feels like original sin.....
Our planet is warming like never before, We are frogs in a kettle slow boiling.
Mother Earth will give up If we don’t give in
to the science of heat trapping gasses. To solar and wind,
May conversion continue,
Turning petrol sugar to molasses....
I still believe in human kindness, More than ever, human touch.
And truth and science, And fairness and freedom,
Is that really asking too much?
And be sure to always speak your mind,
History warns us of silence.
Your voice in defense of what is right Can stifle future violence.
So shoot for bliss, and settle for joy, May the ponies you bet on run first. For the love of your friends,
And your lust for life,
May you never lose your thirst.”