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These remarks were given, by Dr. Sheldon Bach at a publisher's celebration for his new book, Chimeras and Other Writings on November 20, 2017, twelve days after the election of Donald Trump.
This book was written over a period of many years. I think the earliest paper dates from 1972, and in that almost half a century so many things have changed in our world that we indeed seem to be living in another time and place. Just a few days ago I watched an old Hollywood film from 1957, An Affair to Remember, with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr who meet on an ocean liner and fall in love although they are each engaged to someone else. They promise to meet in six months at the top of the Empire State building, but as she hurries to the rendezvous she is struck by a car and crippled, but she will never let him know why it is that she hadn't shown up for their meeting. This tale of love, trust, fidelity and an eventual happy ending is accompanied by a chorus of smiling children conducted by the heroine in a wheel chair, who is being cared for by a trusted Catholic priest and a loving doctor who is constantly taking her pulse and refuses to be paid, and the lyrically swelling sound track at the happy end brought tears to my eyes.
How different from this contemporary vision by our late lamented Leonard Cohen:
Everybody knows that the dice are loadedEverybody rolls with their fingers crossedEverybody knows that the war is overEverybody knows the good guys lostEverybody knows the fight was fixedThe poor stay poor, the rich get richThat's how it goes