The Democrats are meeting down the road from my city so traffic is beginning to solidify on the interstates, helicopters are wump-wumping overhead, black SUV’s have suddenly appeared out of nowhere and there is a pork-smelling gas cloud venting out of the Time Warner Cable arena where the presidential nomination is taking place. This is a big deal for Charlotte, which is more accustomed to jazz fests, art jams and public concerts rather than the televised power struggle of a democracy. Me, I’m barefoot.
It’s still summer and red cardinals flutter about while I sip lemonade and decide it’s time others pointed out the pitfalls of leadership and policies. If you don’t have an opinion of where things are going by now then you’ve been living in a mine shaft. I am going to sit on my deck and read a book of American poetry and wait for evening when fireflies come out and my yard becomes a thousand points of light and puts me in awe of nature.
We have billions of dollars in a national electric grid yet a bug the size of a paper clip can have light whenever it wants and never worry about rate increases. To see swarms of lights bob about reminds you of billions of stars and then you realize this is a big universe and that it’s not always about you. Suddenly your mortality hits you over the head like a hammer. Bwwang!
Politics has taken us into decades of debt along with a war against Islam and the people under 25 are going to pay the price and they are, like uh, you know, okay with that so long as they can text each other. They walk around proud of a new tattoo and have no idea that “government deficient” means they will never be able to retire. You tell them the Chinese own us and they say, “Chill, dude”.
But I won’t be fighting this war because, I am, you know, like, 59. Really, I am 59 years old and with enough Zantac and Zolof I’ll continue to grow old and I hope you will still love me and you will still feed me when I’m 64.
I’m lucky. If the ice caps melt the ocean will not wash away my car. No tsunamis can reach my doorstep and besides none of my friends are penguins. If Pakistan gets mad and shoots a bomb over here do you think that they are really going to drop it on Statesville no they are not. So chill, dude.
Politics plays havoc with this great nation but the United States will always be around in one form or another. Cities may flood and crumble and we may have to hire security men with machine guns mounted on small pickup trucks to escort us to Food Lion and back but we’ll be here. Somewhere a boy will still fall in love with a girl and they will believe in a future.
I recently saw a young teenage couple walk out of a hotdog eatery. He carried the food, she had the napkins and they had one drink. Both sat down side by side on a bench and fed each other, sipped out of the same straw and occasionally laughed and giggled. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek causing him to put his arm around her shoulders and draw her close. Suddenly politics is small potatoes.
Forget deficits and mandated health care. Find someone that makes you happy, hold their hand, buy them a hot dog and let the fireflies light up your night.
