A happenstance conversation I had today with one of the Downtown business owners was about our current election which we’ll be glad to see ending. We both seemed to be asking each other in different ways, “How did we get to this point?” As the days grow closer, the rhetoric becomes all the more bizarre to where I barely even want to read the headlines let alone any articles. I teasingly said, “I’m going to draw the face of Micky Mouse somewhere on my ballot and create an “X’d” box, and call it good to go.” The polarizing of political parties is at an all time high, the stilted editorials written by party hardliners are growing in numbers, and the political witch hunting is back in vogue.
I’m wondering what most of the real moderates are thinking right now—irregardless of their political party affiliation. I blame both parties for allowing themselves to be branded as leaning either this way or that. As far as I’m concerned, only a real leader who understands both sides of the political spectrum who can bring those sides to a table and hammer out differences, and make good and lasting things happen for everyone, is the one I believe deserving of the office of the presidency. These one issue people who scream the loudest for attention and seem to get it, are the ones we should be turning deaf ears towards. Don’t they make presidential material anymore? Did the factory close and nobody told us about it? Everyone is filled with fear of not being politically correct and likely blackballed by some special interest group, or possibly even sued for some out-of-context statement that was made. Every “ONE” wants to be heard. Why can’t it be more the fashion of “EVERYONE”?. It all goes back to where too many children have been given the idea that they’re special, never wrong, and certainly every failure of theirs is someone else’s fault. There’s no faulting one’s self anymore because we’re all faultless—right? If you believe that, then I have a steal of a deal waterfront property in Florida I’d like to sell you. I just want all this craziness to stop. Don’t you?
One of my young and curious relatives dropped by today asking about some of our forefathers and mothers. I found her genuine curiosity delightfully interesting to where I was sharing some precious memories of nearly every one she asked about. Her questions sent me racing back to times and places that would now seem foreign to many of our young. The questioning went even deeper to where she was not only asking about physical appearances, likes and dis-likes, but also my take on their personalities. I told her she reminded me of one of my great aunts, and as soon as my observation was out of my mouth, her question was, “Did you like her?” I smiled and said, “Of course I liked her. She was not only very intelligent, but also wickedly witty.” She then said, “So you think I’m wickedly witty?” I was then forced to clarify myself in why she reminded me of my great aunt and ended by saying, “I said you remind me of her—not her clone.” That finally got us back on track allowing me to continue on with my recollections of our ancestors. Her visit was over-stayed, but I’m glad she now has a better understanding of those who came before her. Above all, I found it refreshing to have someone with a genuine curiosity asking about those that have been nearly forgotten. Handed down memories that are soulfully given, create all the greater lasting legacies.
