Last Call…

So, I was chastised earlier this week by a Facebook friend for posting too darn many political pieces on my wall. Lighten up, already, was her message. Then, while riding with a friend this glorious morning, he turned the conversation to politics, asking for my thoughts and insights on various maladies in today’s political arena. So there you have it. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who come from wildly varying perspectives – some of whom feel I’m way too political and some lamenting that I’m not nearly as politically active as in the past. The reality is that both perspectives are true, but my inclination is to side with the former.

My family and I have paid a high price for my political involvement over the years. It has cost me a company and a bankruptcy, put incredible strains on my marriage, deprived my children of the attention I should have been paying at critical junctures in their lives. The fact is that I involved myself with the best of intentions, accomplished a good deal at times that will have lasting effect, and don’t really regret as much as I probably should the sacrifice I willingly made. I do regret dragging them along on my crusade, and apologize to them for the steep price they’ve paid.

But enough is enough. While I expect to continue playing the political provocateur on Facebook, this is entertainment for me. I am not a lighthearted fellow – am actually an emotional recluse and rather well known for my lack of humor. This is a condition I am doggedly working on remedying through counseling, study, meditation, and so forth, so if I find a harmless pastime that brings a little levity into my life, I hope my friends will be inclined to humor me. But I truly intend for this post to be the last politically oriented piece in this forum – am now off on another more personal path. So, as a going away present to those interested, a quick trek through my views on the current landscape of American politics…

Political Parties
My riding buddy asked why we can’t just do away with political parties entirely, and I for one would love it. Unfortunately, our Constitution protects freedom of association under the First Amendment, so the parties cannot be outlawed. Fact of the matter is that the parties can be and are heavily regulated, while individual citizens and unregistered groups are not regulated at all. I believe these are as much or more of a threat to our society than the parties at this point, particularly following the recent Citizens United v. FEC SCOTUS decision. I have no idea how it will all play out, but the situation doesn’t make me hopeful.

The Founders anticipated the formation of political parties, but they didn’t anticipate that these might assume the permanent nature now exhibited, nor the level of influence they would have across the entire spectrum of governmental activities. Unconfirmed executive branch officers, the incredible electoral/political influence on every single piece of legislation, the perpetual logjam in the legislative process – none of these would please any of the Federalists who saw the Constitution through ratification in 1789.

Of all the existing political parties, the one the Founders with their 1789 world view would most readily identify with is the Libertarians, whose sole focus is on limiting the scope of government to constitutionally enumerated activities. Before all the Libertarians and Tea Partiers out there get excited, please note my caveat regarding world view. We are no longer an isolated thirteen colonies of relatively homogeneous Englishmen on the eastern seaboard, comprised overwhelmingly of agricultural workers and land owners, with the merchant/industrialist class running a distant second and all others fractional participants. Neither are we slave holding plantation owners, which were the primary cause of the adherence to the Federal model which has proved as vexing as it has contributory to our national well being. Indeed, few are the Founders would take pride in what the nation has become in its sprawling urbanism, internationalism, multi-culturalism, economic complexity, and crass materialism. And while they would lament what we’ve become, once they understood the true nature of modern America, they wouldn’t advocate for a return to a political philosophy that has been outmoded for at least a century…

The problem with the Democrats is that they have lost touch with the only thing that ever mattered – being the representatives of working Americans and true small businesses. The family farmer (dwindling though they may be), sole proprietors, tradesmen, butchers, bakers, candle-stick makers, common laborers and blue-collar workers – these were the lifeblood of the Democratic Party. These folks now feel for the most part that they have nobody representing their interests. An unfathomable portion have wandered hopefully to the Republicans, while most have found themselves abandoned in the mushy middle with no party and no seeming reason to participate in the political process. My personal view is that the party no longer really stands for anything definable as a result of trying to fit more factions into its political tent than any tent can hold. I don’t see a solution to this problem coming any time in the foreseeable future…

The Republicans, on the other hand, have their own can of worms to deal with. They are what they have always been – the party of the moneyed interests. Their message was originally much a libertarian one, buttressed with more than a hint of fascism. Historically, the American voter recognized that they weren’t rich, and at least since the New Deal, that government could in fact make a positive difference in their lives – realities that didn’t bode well with the masses for the Republican’s electoral chances. In their creativity and efficiency, and in response to LBJ’s brave but dangerous push for civil rights for African Americans, they have expanded their message to attract enough voters to win elections, but at a fearful price. They invited in social conservatives concerned with creating a religious utopia (for themselves), along with racists and isolationist xenophobes, and have managed to achieve political parity where none should rightfully exist. The result is that pragmatic moderates and centrists as well as liberals are fearful of the Republican vision, which is why they stand at record low approval ratings today. I also don’t see this dynamic easing anytime soon, and in fact expect it to worsen with the advent of the Tea Party activists, the alienation of Hispanics, the fastest growing minority in the nation, and an increasingly strident anger against all things not wealthy WASP.

Political Reform
So, recognizing that nobody wants any of them, it should be a simple thing to fix the system, right? Not so, unfortunately. Remember, the Founders didn’t anticipate permanent parties with unlimited power, so they didn’t see the need to protect us from such a development. In fact, they allowed each house of Congress to write its own rules, and they allowed the states to handle apportionment and redistricting. The result is that the two major parties have a solid lock on the entire governmental process, a bare majority in either house allows the dominant party to control the flow of legislation and a sizable minority to block it, and more than 90 percent of House districts (at both state and federal level) are gerrymandered to protect incumbent office holders and their parties from any effort to bring about change.

To make matters worse, the flow of money into the process – always debilitating, is now a full-blown metastasizing cancer, made worse, as mentioned above, by the Citizens United ruling which grants corporations legal personhood and the right to spend limitless amounts of money toward electing their preferred water carrier. And we, the voters, are stuck between a sizeable rock and very solid hard place, with no recourse to change outside of armed revolt. (See note)

But wait…

The American Voter
The vast majority of American voters, including those who vote as well as those who don’t, are intellectually lazy and dangerously incurious. While this is somewhat truer on the right than the left, in my view, it is most prevalent in the apathetic middle. We read less, think less, ask less and demand less of our officials than any generation in modern history, and this is a trend that is increasing at a disturbing rate. Talking head radio entertainers belittle vacuous Hollywood entertainers for their political utterances and activism, when the country would be best served if all of them were ignored. Our education system is collapsing at exactly the time when citizens need better than ever to understand history, economics, trade and tax and geopolitical realities and the policies and politics that affect them. The media is so moribund and compromised it scarcely warrants the Constitutional protection the Founders granted it as an indispensable necessity for national survival. And the entire planet is held hostage, in this country as elsewhere, by the incessant battle between two Dark Age religions that fitfully coexist with nuclear fission, quantum physics and the fully mapped human genome.

And herein lays the crux of our political problems. As I told my cycling buddy this morning, have said often before and will no doubt repeat in the future – we have exactly the government we deserve. We are, in the end, a republic, if we can hang onto it, as Franklin is reported to have said. Ill-informed voters, apathetic voters, irrational voters, and non-voters all bear responsibility for where we find ourselves today. It is our country and it is our political system and our trying to lay the blame anywhere but squarely at our own feet is a cowardly and disingenuous cop out.

Manifesto for Change
It was this realization, belated on my part, that I could not in fact do much to affect the well-being of the country which convinced me that I needed to focus more on myself and my family and my future, and less on trying to save America from itself. I will continue to educate myself on the issues and the candidates and races, to vote, to support in an individual way the candidates from whichever party I think are most likely to best serve the constituency I find myself part of at that point. Finances allowing, I might even still write a check from time to time. Just doing these simple things will put me in the top 10 percent of voters in this country, and that’s good enough for me.

Now, if I should get wind of a viable candidate or promising party committed to actually fixing things, I might come out of hibernation and get involved in a more active way. What would real change consist of?

1. Eliminate all private money from political campaigns
2. Eliminate legislator participation in the redistricting process
3. Provide equal ballot access to independents and third party candidates
4. Establish reasonable term limits

It would require all of these at a minimum, and either in whole all at once or in this particular order, for me to believe we might salvage this noble experiment we call America. Do I believe it could happen? Absolutely! Do I believe it will? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Americans are too fat and too lazy, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon either…

C'est la vie!

Note - While the depictions above refer primarily to the federal picture, it is not substantially different in most places at the state level.

Riding With God

So, I was riding my bike along the river as I do most Sunday mornings, sweating and pumping and daydreaming a little, I suppose, when, suddenly, a voice spoke to me very clearly. “Watch out for that chuckhole!” Instinctively I swerved, knowing that it didn’t matter to which side. If the voice had said “pothole,” I’d have likely panicked, but chuckholes are by definition pretty small. The danger was easily avoided. And so began today’s talk with God…

“Where are you?” I asked. “I am here,” God replied. “There has never been a time or a place that I could not so answer, to those capable of asking.”

Recognizing this as a unique opportunity, I decided to be bold. “I had a few things I’ve wanted to talk to you about. Do you have a little time to visit while I ride?” “Of course,” God replied. “I have all the time in the world.”

“Keep your eye on the path,” God said gently. “Oh, so you know I’ve been studying Taoism and Buddhism?” I asked. “Of course,” God replied. “There is nothing about you that I don’t know.” Suddenly I felt the surface change beneath my wheels as the ground suddenly transitioned with a bump from smooth pavement to rocks and grass. I snapped my focus back to my course, and realized I’d continued straight when the track turned. I wrestled my bike back onto the trail, worried that I’d broken the connection…

“Like I said,” God chuckled. “Keep your eye on the path. Your Buddhism calls it ‘Right mindfulness.’”

“Oh, thanks,” I answered. “I was afraid you’d left me.” “I never leave you,” God said. “I couldn’t if I wanted to. You are part of me, and I am all of you. How could I leave you?” Hmmm, food for thought, I thought to myself. “One would hope so,” God replied.

“Keep your eye on the path,” God repeated, as I nearly missed a monstrous dip in the roadway. “Or else park your bike and be still. You’re making me nervous.” “Really?” I asked. “No, of course not,” God laughed aloud. “I was pulling your leg. I don’t get nervous – that’s a human frailty and I don’t have such weaknesses.” “Oh,” I responded meekly.

“You’ve done walking meditation,” God said. “Think of this as riding meditation. Pay sufficient attention to your course, and the balance to our conversation, and ignore anything else that comes along.” “Do you think I can do that?” I asked. “You can do anything your mind and body will allow,” God replied. “This is well within your capabilities.” Woo hoo, God expressing confidence in me. Talk about a pick-me-up…

“So, tell me what you want to talk about,” God prompted. “Don’t you know?” I asked half jokingly, not considering at the time I might be putting myself in line for a smiting. “Of course I do,” God replied. “And don’t be a wise ass. You’re the one who formulated this exchange as a conversation, and I’m finding it interesting. If you don’t want to talk, just say the word. I’ve got plenty of other things I can be doing.” “No, no,” I pleaded. “I’m sorry for smarting off and I do want to talk, really I do.” “Ok, then,” God said. “Let’s talk.”

“Well, yesterday at my AA meeting the topic was faith and forgiveness,” I began. “I’ve gotten fairly good at forgiveness, I think, but have never been big on faith. I mean, to me it’s a weakness – nothing more than a combination of baseless belief and human will. Am I wrong?”

“Are we having this conversation?” God asked in an amused tone. “Well,” I stammered. “It certainly seems to me that we are. But it’s all in my head, really. Isn’t it?” “And what has that got to do with anything?” God asked. “Everything that you know and think you know or have seen or heard or experienced or ever will experience is in your head, now isn’t it?” “That’s where I process and save these events,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen, does it?” Of course not,” God laughed aloud. “The whole ‘realism’ versus ‘idealism’ argument, eh? I find it quite amusing. I mean, not that it is totally without validity, but humans have an entertaining habit of taking valid philosophical constructs to hilarious extremes. Don’t you think?”

Suddenly I had an epiphany as if struck by a bolt from the blue. “You laughed,” I shouted. “And that’s not the first time.” God snorted at this. “Of course I laughed,” God gasped while regaining control. “Why wouldn’t I?” “But, that means you have a sense of humor,” I exclaimed. “That’s a human emotion.” “Is it?” God suddenly turned serious. “Isn’t it?” I replied. “”Well of course not,” God chuckled again. “Many sentient beings have a sense of humor besides humans. Have you never watched animals play tricks on one another? Of course you have. Cats and dogs and monkeys and squirrels and birds. And these are only a few in your world. Humor and laughter, or what you call laughter, is universal. The best human word for it is joy. All of higher beings capable of emotion experience this, precisely because it is one of my primary characteristics.” “Really?” This was starting to get quite interesting…

“So, do you get sad?” I asked. “No, that one is more rare,” God replied. “I know what your sadness is, of course, because it is part of me. And other beings both in your world and others feel sadness. But, no, I don’t feel sadness.”

“What about anger?” I asked. “Nope, no anger.” “But the Bible talks about you being a wrathful and vengeful God,” I challenged. “Oh, please,” God laughed again. “Do you believe everything you read?” “But the Bible is your inspired word, according to its believers.” “You are toying with me,” God said. “This is a good time for you to be thankful I am not the vengeful God of your human Bible. You don’t believe the Bible, or the Koran, or the Torah, or any of the other scriptures of any of the world’s religions, and its disingenuous for you to pretend to defend them.” “So,“ I replied. “None of them are true?” “All of them have truths in them,” God explained patiently. “But no, none of them are fully true, and how could they be?”

Confused, I asked God to explain.

“First, you need to slow down a bit. You're pulling ahead of your friends and they'll think you're trying to leave them behind. Friends are important to you, you know." True, I thought. "True dat," God laughed. "I really like that expression."

"Now, keep your eye on the path,” he directed. “And I’ll explain the tiny bit about me that you’re capable of understanding.”

And so I rode and listened…

Happy Is as Happy Does...

So, I don't think I've mentioned that my recent college graduate got himself a full-time job peripherally related to his field of study less than a month after finishing classes. In this economy, we grown-ups know how big a deal this is - had to explain it to him, as they don't teach gratitude, appreciation or "whew" in college these days. I think he gets it, though...

He's always been the one I've worried about - a sensitive lad who I never understood and largely ignored during his formative years because I didn't understand him. He's never shown an ounce of ambition, other than aspiring to be a benevolent ruler of the world during a relatively brief phase he long ago outgrew. Prior and since, he's pretty much lived in his trash strewn cave with a pair of headsets on, gaming or surfing or playing one of his axes or video gaming - emerging to eat, iron pants and shirts (yeah, not sure what that's about), and meandering off to school or work.

He's worked part time since starting college - one of these grindingly reliable workers who had the good fortune to land a work-study data entry job which allowed him to utilize his 9,000 wpm error-free keyboard skills while only using .ooo374 percent of his grey matter...

Since he started preschool, it has been a daily ritual for me to ask him how his day had been. And since he started preschool, if he chose to respond at all, the answer has been along the lines of, "Okay," or "Hmmmm," or some unintelligible grunting noise. Some rituals exist for rituals' sake, you know. I've kept it up through his college years, and when he started working. I asked because I cared, and wanted him to know I cared. And I accepted his answer because, well, what the hell else was I going to do? Beat it out of him? I was a pretty shitty father, but even I know that's not the way to go. Only time will tell how badly I fucked him up - he won't admit it yet. He really does seem to be doing pretty well so far. In his own way... (He hates my elipses, so just threw a few in to get his goat.)

Oh, did I mention he is astronomically brilliant? No? Sorry. He's astronomically brilliant. For the longest time I worried that he would be the world's smartest person getting by in life by spitting on windshields and asking for quarters. I'm hoping/thinking I was way off on that one...

Anyway, he's been at his new job for a few weeks now, so, keeping the ritual alive, I ask him every evening how his day was. And every evening the answer has been along the lines of, "Okay," or "Hmmmm," or some unintelligible grunting noise. Life can be interesting that way, you know?

So I decided to step it up a notch the other evening, and asked, "But are you having fun?" To which the world's smartest kid, who like his father doesn't seem to much have fun, but who is thankfully not getting by in life by spitting on windshields and asking for quarters, answered, "If you're not having fun, maybe you should be doing some other kind of work." See? I told you. Smart kid, eh?

Of course, I was dumbstruck. Speechless. Shocked. Amazed. Confused. The whole idea of having fun at work and enjoying what I do for a living is pretty alien to me. I mean, I'm apparently not very happy anyway, something that I've only recently come to realize. And I've been working pretty steadily since I was about ten years old. And yes, I'm a grinder, too - vacation is an alien concept, and I rack up unused PTO the way most people collect pennies as pocket change. And its not like I've never had an enjoyable moment working, because of course I have. Why hell, I'd even go so far as to say that in four decades of working I've probably been excited to go to work at least, oh...maybe...twenty or thirty times. Maybe? Hmmm....

But let's not dwell on how sad it is to be me. Because really, it's not. I'm a slow starter, but I'm starting to understand that there might be some happiness in my future, possibly even while working. Maybe? But recently I've started figuring out at least a little bit how and where to find it - happiness, that is, outside of work for the most part. On the happiness count, I'm feeling pretty good about the going forward part of my life - have never been very adept at looking back and have no immediate plans at improving that skill set...

Rather, let's dwell on how excited I am that both of my kids have made it to adulthood remarkably well-balanced, given the rather useless influence I was on their lives. They are unencumbered by unwieldy relationships, unhealthy addictions, unplanned progeny, unwelcome criminal records. Woo hoo! We win!!!

And let's focus on the fact that they realize there is way more to life than work, but that, as they are possibly going to spend the majority of their waking hours for the next few decades working, they should at least be doing something they enjoy and which gives them some satisfaction. I can only imagine that they, two very sharp youngsters, came to this realization by growing up in a household with two parents who spent the majority of our waking hours working, and who for the most part seemed generally unhappy doing what we did. I guess when I think about it, I managed to convey something valuable to them despite my myriad parental shortcomings. I didn't have any way of teaching them how to be happy, because I've not yet quite figured it out even now. Instead, through an unintended but apparently effective exercise in negative reinforcement - by discouraging them from following in my footsteps, I perhaps taught them how to not be miserable. I suppose there are worse places to start out one's working life...

Knowing something and turning that knowledge into meaningful action are two entirely different things. I've long appreciated Thoreau's observation: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." To date, I have. Going forward, I won't. I'm hopeful my kids won't either. Very hopeful.

I love you, my darlings...