No Divisions Exist

The divisions that we currently live in are artificial, created only for the purpose of filling pigeon holes on someone's roll top desk. Neat little boxes that satisfy an obsessive compulsive need for order provide our marching music. It is time that we need to realize that human society is messy, and unordered in any but a very general unifying sense, and any attempts to divide it up into cute little boxes always result in folly, often in violence, and generally with the destruction of someone's culture and life.

In reality there are no divisions, only a continuum of understanding, experience, belief, and knowledge. In real life this means there is no black, white, olive, tan, brown, red or yellow differentiation of "races"; there is only a continuum of human skin tones. As for political beliefs, there is no Left or Right, only a continuum of thought, education, experience and emotion that results in individually held beliefs that accordingly exist as a panorama or maybe as a collage. The same is true of gender, religious beliefs, sanity, wealth, geo-political borders; anything that we now see as a division is in reality an artificial human construct designed only to point out and accentuate differences rather than likenesses.

Beginning sometime in August, we will be inaugurating a weekly podcast in an attempt to remove the artificial divisions that prevent us from living to our full potential.  Stay tuned.

New Life With Different Perforations

I read a news item today that said many restaurants are not going to survive the present virus induced stoppage in business. Here's my thought - after we develop our new normal it will once again be a pleasure to dine out, albeit expensive. Dine in restaurants will have the same floor space with less capacity. So, we will once again have peace and quiet while we sip our wine and enjoy quiet conversation with our dinner partners- if we can afford it. For the rest of us, we will have the enjoyment of great delicatessens that will be replacing the restaurants that fell by the wayside. These delis, or some of them, will serve up specialty meals to go- TV trays with gourmet servings of comfort food to take home or to your favorite overlook or park to enjoy. I'm looking forward to both options.  I'll have a smooth merlot please.

I'm Tired

I'm tired. Not of being cooped up indoors as much as I am the whining about it. If you want to go out then do it. Don't try to coerce or coax others to join you though. It's dangerous out there at the moment and you may very well be taking your own life in your hands by venturing beyond the confines of your own cozy nest. Yes of course there are reasons to go outside for many and it is a calculated risk. There are consequences, intended and unintended, for every choice we make and in this instance it may be one that deprives your family of your presence. You do not have the right to make that decision for others.

That said, I'm all for you going out unprotected; your nose to the wind, glad handing everyone you see who allows it. Why? It's simple- we need more canaries in the coal mine. I'm staying in until I see that you don't die.

The Next Eight Years

It seems to me that our next president needs to be a two term president. I say this because I believe it will take at least eight years of stability in our administrative branch to heal the wounds made in our relationships in the world community. The deeper distrust of US voters created by the election of Donald John Trump as forty fifth president will take much longer to change.  That distrust is now part of our world reality and national psyche - one of the unintended consequences of our actions.

With all that said, my choice for our next president must be a statesperson and be able to survive two terms of globe trotting, staying calm, and being the target of vicious mud slinging. While national health care, leveling the existing economic disparities among Americans, and reducing student debt are all important they are better addressed by Congress than a president. In addition those issues will not heal the wounds mentioned above nor will they provide salve for the internal festering sores of skin color bigotry, regionalism, nationalism or  religionism.  The next president must convincingly explain how Americans can maintain a sense of national pride and at the same time successfully participate in a global economy.

If Trump is re-elected the best thing that will happen to us is that we will become the laughingstock of the free world.