Holiday time.
Rush, rush, busy, busy.
No time for reading the complete descriptions of every Christmas movie on your flat-screen channel guide, let alone wordy diatribes addressing the American political landscape.
So, here's a little something to chew on instead of whatever sugar is lurking in every nook and cranny of your life for the next four or five weeks.
It's just a little pill of opinion.
Be it easy, or bitter, to swallow.
A lot of us, a whole lot of us, have spent several years now in emotional, if not outright verbal, conflict with one another regarding the current, either momentary or eternal, occupant of the Oval Office.
But, put a pin in that.
Here's the pill.
Most of us, if not all of us, we, the people, as it were, have been getting it wrong for a long time.
If not every day of our lives.
We have functioned with eyes glazed over from the fog of fantasy that what we are electing, when we elect a President, is someone who will have us climbing every mountain, fording every stream, following every rainbow as he (and someday, no matter what a lot of you think, hope and pray for, she) and we work together to find our dreams and see them come true.
Allow me to quote your current Oval Office occupant and one of his more eloquent observations shared many times during the 2016 campaign.
Wrong.
All of that mountain climbing, stream fording, rainbow following, dream finding portion of the program (cue appropriate angelic, inspiring, hope filled harp music) is certainly something we don't want to see go away and, of course, something that we would very much like to see in the he (or someday, no matter what a lot of you think, hope and pray for, she) that we grant the privilege of swearing to faithfully execute the office.
But it's way past time to get our minds right on exactly where in the national "qualifications for keys to 1600 Pennsylvania" list that wad of wonderfulness belongs.
Number two, at best.
And it's way past time for a new number one at the top of the charts, cats and kitties, a little something that's been bubbling under far too long and has, finally, inevitably, in fact, hooked us all on the horns of one big damn dilemma.
With a capital D and that stands for, well, D and...that....stands for demagogue.
Number one on the "you must be this tall to ride this ride" list of Presidential qualities, virtues, traits and/or abilities.
The deceptively difficult skill required to keep the cork in the goddamn bottle.
Clarity and conclusion coming up.
Time for this week's episode of "Metaphor Theater".
America, in our marvelous metaphor this week, is a living, breathing body.
A living, breathing body with a heart and a bloodstream feeding that heart, and a brain and a bloodstream feeding that brain and lungs to keep the body vigorous and healthy and a bloodstream feeding those lungs to keep them functioning and healthy.
I'll spare you the item by item metaphoricals here and just clue you that the cells in that bloodstream represent the good, decent, loving, caring, kind, compassionate qualities that exist in many, oh, what the hell, it's Christmas, most of the people that make up the population that make up the civilized society each of us refers to as "my country".
As in 'tis of thee'.
And 'sweet land of liberty'.
And, big finish, that letting freedom ring thing.
But, just like a living, breathing body, America is also inhabited by toxins, poisons, potentially harmful, in extreme cases fatal, some natural, if unwelcome, by-products of the daily functioning of the body, many, oh, what the hell, it's Christmas, most primarily self inflicted. Too much sugar, too much fat, too much cholesterol, that can kill ya like that.
Again, for the metaphor challenged, the toxins and poisons represent bigotry, racism, sexism, white supremacy and your lesser dramatic but equally dangerous garden variety infectious invaders like selfishness, pettiness, vindictiveness.
And another "ism" I forgot to mention. One that is to the American bloodstream of the 21st Century what polio was to the nervous system of the 20th Century.
Narcissism.
And the really insidious thing about all those "isms" and "nesses"........
Just like the toxins, poisons and potentially fatal infections that live, literally, for the opportunity to do damage to the healthy human body, all of the worst of humanity, each of the aforementioned "isms" and "nesses" aren't going away any time soon.
Props and due respect to all those who work tirelessly to change the world.....as well as those who imagine all the people living lives in peace, those poisons have been a part of the human experience since the garden.
So, it's not buzzkill pessimism, but, rather, sensible fact facing to acknowledge their existence.
And, ideally, to do everything we can do to keep those poisons, if not conquered, then, at the very least, contained so that they can do as little harm as possible.
This week's metaphor bonus.
Think of a healthy society as a well maintained and skillfully run nuclear power plant.
And think of man's worst qualities as radioactive air and water, by products of the nuclear process.
Properly contained, the plant provides power and light and life.
Allow, through carelessness or recklessness or, worse, by design, critical mass and meltdown to occur....and disaster, destruction and death are injected into the mainstream.
Like poisons in the bloodstream.
A reactor malfunctions and radioactivity is released.
An essential body organ ruptures and toxins flood the bloodstream.
A bottle marked "Poison" falls and shatters........
Or, even worse, the cork in the bottle marked "Poison" is pulled out.....
It's way past time to get our minds right on exactly what is number one on the national "qualifications for keys to 1600 Pennsylvania" list.
Number one on that list of Presidential qualities, virtues, traits and/or abilities.
The deceptively difficult skill required to keep the cork in the goddamn bottle.
Because we've already seen what happens when America elects someone who lacks that skill.
His only real skill being convincing enough people that, in fact, pulling that cork out is exactly just what the doctor ordered.....
...to make America great again..
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