LINES AGAIN

     Once again we come to the question of lines. Are they blurred or clear? Does it really matter? Are they true or false? Are they meaningful or not? Do we even care anymore?
     The lines which most affected me this past week were the lines of love and encouragement that were drawn clearly and directly to me after posting on Facebook re Parkinson's. I heard from former students, parents, teachers, friends, old and new and my heart swelled with the lines of connectivity and  care.
     These lines are the most important ones in a life for they go far beyond the lines of corruption and uncaring that we see elsewhere. One set of lines is clear, transparent and lucid, unselfish, while the other set of lines is convoluted, twisted to serve nefarious purposes and so enmeshed in lies that it is too difficult to remember where truth was, if it ever was, and where lies began.
     Hence we now have two situational sets of lies that are twisting the national psyche. One is the set of lies wrapping itself around a supposed memo of, from, about - take your choice - the FBI. It has been 'edited' allegedly by Nunes, that creepy dude, and purports to cast aspersions upon the FBI even as it comes out that the supposed 'bad' FBI guy was actually the one who wanted to go hard at Hillary rather than the other way around. Oops! It is also problematic because it quite possibly will reveal certain facts or methods or people who need to be kept in the dark for the sake of the intelligence for and of our country but once again we have the Republicans choosing Party over country. The GOP has set up its own set of lines and they lead to awful places and awful behavior.
     The other set of lines is that generated by the stories and excuses made up about the meeting in Trump Tower with the Russians, supposedly re Russian adoption law. Truly!! There has been such  sets of lies, such a set of twisted lines re this meeting, that the Trump confederates and Trump himself cannot seem to find their way out of this paper bag of their own devising. When one engages in bad behavior and possibly either ashamed at that or just worried about being caught with pants down, one often denies, denies, denies and then gets caught up in such  a series of lies that it is difficult to remember what and when and boom! Hoist by one's own petard.
     Lines. Lines of connection. Lines of love and care. Lines of encouragement. Or lines of hatred, of cheating, of collusion, of disdain for one's own country and the people within. We need to choose the lines we prefer, the ones we value. We need to make it clear that we are tired of made up stories, of blatant and brazen lie telling by the administration and the liar in chief, Trump. If we do not - then we are at fault and are responsible for the tragedies that ensue and yes, there will be tragedies. Lines and lines and lines. Choose.