WHOA!

  Well, apparently, I turned the key yesterday and opened a door behind which lay much emotion, rather less so of careful thought. It was wow! Many heated, long responses, mostly privately, from both sides of the issues. There were many accusations, misunderstandings and misinterpretations on both sides of the matter. Ergo, I will reiterate certain feelings and statements or principles. First of all, and everything follows from that, I do not promote assassination. I despise the violence which has become the trendy thing to employ in pushing one's viewpoints. 

Yes, I have some strong feelings in this matter as well as others, but do not wish for us to shoot each other. That accomplishes nothing other than to flood the planet with more blood and guts and for what!! Ultimately, violence does not lead to solutions and instead promotes only more dissension and wounds incapable of healing.

Among my most powerful feelings, thoughts, are those of my opposition to the candidacy of Trump for President. He is most manifestly unfit for that role, as he was for his original presentation and occupation. He shamed himself and the nation. He is immoral, a felon, a selfish man and deserving of contempt rather than honor. This is our best and brightest? This is the true representative of our principals, as a people, as a nation? Heaven help us if that is the truth. 

Compounding the issue is the matter of Joe Biden's candidacy for a second term as president. This man is not a danger to America or to the world, unlike that posed by Trump. However, he too, is at this point, not the best candidate. But where are these best and brightest? These replacement candidates - why have they not stepped forward or been pushed forward? Why has service to the people become inverted and government positions, elected or appointed, have become sinecures of the type we thought we had long ago negated and canceled.

 And for that matter, why have we not established an age ceiling for these heavy-duty demanding positions. These two are youngsters compared to the aged folks who are approaching or have already reached their nineties and remain in Congress. Where are the young? Where is the inspiration we should have inculcated within during their education? We have failed them and ourselves. We have all become too selfish. We have all forgotten how grateful we should be that we have been allowed to live in a country such as America. We are blessed indeed, but we, most of us, have turned away from the gratefulness and instead morphed into demanding entitled shouting mouths. Most definitely not conducive for positive results.   

In truth, we have moved in recent years into the mode of doing things the wrong way and/ or for the wrong reasons. For all that we have ended up in a tragically muddled situation from which I do not see any exit. I do not even see a faint trail. We are so lost in the wilderness, the swamp, the desert - whatever part of nature we use as an example. So lost are we. There are too many of us at present who take it now for the preferred environment. In other words, too many of us have lost our bearings - emotional, mental, in every which way possible. We have become so extreme to the point that we are so busy xing out friends, family, acquaintances, so busy that we cannot and do not pay any attention to anything else.

Where do we go from here? I have no idea. Violence seems to have become a favorite mode of expression now. We take potshots at each other with varying amounts of toxicity in our verbal language, the resultant explosions simply sending more waves of pressure through the atmosphere, and we are blown over into more extreme positions. Whoa, everybody, just whoa! We need to stop and shake ourselves just a bit. Actually, more than a bit. 

What the hell are we doing? And what the hell have we done? And what the hell are we proposing for the future? Do we even allow for a future, one that is positive and promising? I truly doubt that and please notice I generally use "we" for I do not exempt myself from inclusion. I do not consider myself anything other than human, a being prone to making errors.  Subject to the same whirlwinds of emotion, and apart from a small group of those overstuffed with hatred for my people, I wish no one to be rendered asunder in actuality.      

  We are, none of us, exempt from life, having to make decisions which have consequences. We cannot shelter ourselves from their effects. We share the realities and all own shares in the business of ugliness which we have perpetrated. It is upon all of us to somehow set aside this strife, this noise of angry unthinking voices. Of rampant ramped up emotions precluding any thought. If we don't, if we won't, if we can't, then we will all share space within the same basket going straight to Hell! 

 “I think, therefore I am." The point is that we must think before we rush into things without looking. What is before us? What is beside us? Where will our next footstep take us? Should we all stop, take a breath and try to think things through before we jump?! I think, maybe, if we did so, we could, would, begin to hear each other. First in whispers. and hopefully growing louder, acceptably so, allowing for hearing each other and allow for validation where possible and true.           

While we can never discount nor erase all the trauma of humanity, in general and individually, we can, if we wish to, smooth the wound over, allow it to heal, and minimize the permanent scarring. The trauma remains but with lessening pain. We can suture them and muffle, increasingly, the shouts of pain from beneath that suture and allow for healing. It will take time and determination and patience, but it can be done. If we wish it so. If we make it so.  We must do so, for we, all of us, exist     together on this one tiny little planet. G-d help us if we forget that truth. 

As Frost wrote, we have miles to go before we sleep so let us start out on that proper path. Stop thrusting fists into the air. Stop spitting and shouting at each other. Stop ranting how superior we are to others, for we are not. We are all the same with the same needs, the same desires and dreams and the sooner recognized, the better we are. It is easier to give vent to emotions, but more productive if we talk rather than shout, if we hear rather than deafen ourselves. Better to aspire for the stars than dig our way to Hell. The Good Lord can begin again, but we cannot once it is permanent. Think upon that.

-------------------------------------------------------------- Yitzy, sweet boy, as we finalize the plans for the weekend of Remembrance, a weekend we wish never to have been necessitated, we are in pain, feeling all the grief anew. We miss you so, and nothing will ever erase that pain. Tears dim our eyes as they continue to fall. Nor will our hearts ever be whole again. And we will love you 

Always and forever. Always and forever.