​Blog 628 – 05.10.2017

Giving It Air Or Thought

Someone sent me recently a picture of a wolf with two lists beneath it. One list contained all the worst characteristics of wolves and the other the more noble traits, the caption below said: “Which wolf are you feeding?” We like wolves are capable of the heroic as well as the horrible. The attributes we give the most air to or give the most thought to, these are what manifest in our lives. Oh, to be sure, we might on occasion need to air some dirty secret to keep it from festering and spoiling everything but to constantly dwell on what we do not want in our lives is to feed and nourish our nightmares and give them birth in our waking world.

There was talk during the past election season about one particular rather unqualified candidate who seemed to always take all the air out of the room. The media and we who made him believe he could say and act out any way he pleased and still win helped create that monster. And now many of us are wishing we could put that genie back in the bottle. On the network weekend Washington news Sunday they played a clip of President Trump with a gang of mostly white Republican men celebrating in the Rose Garden the narrow passing of a bill in the US House of Representatives that would by some estimates cause millions to lose health care coverage – not improve health care for all. President Trump actually said, “Well, I am the President. I am the President. Can you believe it?” They must have ran that same clip at least five times. Once was disappointing enough. Some years ago I saw a bumper sticker that read, “My child beat up your honor roll student.” I think it is a sad day in our country that we honor ignorance and have exalted it to our highest elective office.

I know my Trump supporter friends will not like me saying that. And honestly I hope he does well but I just don’t see it happening. More than one hundred days have not given me much hope that he even has a clue. He has uttered “Who knew health care was hard?” And “Who knew being President was so hard?” The answer to those questions, Mr. President, is practically everyone it seems but you.  And I know the President does not always have to be the smartest person in the room but he or she should not be the least intelligent or have the least grasp of the facts. We lived through eight years of a President who was proud that he made barely passing grades in college, a President who was an embrassment for many of us who never graduated college. And I am not talking about just your east and west coast elitists. The man could hardly form a intelligent sounding sentence. To quote a President who was an actor and pitchman by trade, “There you go again.” Here we go again. Even the French seem to have more sense than us picking leaders. Who knew?

Did I get off track? Not really, the point is we get what we want, what we give air to, what we give thought to. We create the world we live in by what we feed, by what we dwell on, think about. If all we talk about is who has the biggest baddest military, sports team; if all we watch are movies with revenge themes, well don’t be surprised that our world looks more and more like that.  Before the Roman Empire fell the people were lulled to sleep with gladiator events and talk of constant wars of conquest even their Senators quit reading history and philosophy and soon were sidelined by powerful individuals who promised to make Rome great again. Ignorance besides meaning, “Just not knowing” has the word “ignor” right in the beginning of it. To ignor what we allow to capture our imaginations and our thoughts and to allow those lesser baser thoughts to rule us and create a world without compassion and consideration is not just ignorant it is stupid, far worse. If you have read this far there may still be hope for America. If not they may read about us and what we let slip through our fingers, that future civilization of readers, and builders, and doers, not just followers and spectators.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White