1 Boring Old Man

I woke up this morning in something of a "state." Part of the stimulus were these two statements by our outgoing, soon to be former, President:

It’s another "Surge." When Bin Laden attacked the Twin Trade Towers and retreated into Pakistan, we surged into Iraq. When the War in Iraq floundered, we surged in with more troops. When the Stock Market dipped earlier in the year, we surged the economy with rebate checks [I don’t know what else to call them]. Now, the stock market is near collapse because of the corporate rape known as the Mortgage Crisis, and he’s proposing we surge the debt – again surging to feel the wind blowing through our hair without addressing the underlying problems. We’ll talk about them later. Only "later" never comes.

I once had a department chairman whose desktop was always completely spotless. He had barely known his mother who died in his youth, so he was raised by his father whom he idolized. He said his father told him, "Son, always clean off your desk before you go home at night." This story was told and retold by my aging chairman, the message being "don’t procrastinate" [I noticed that he often told this story when looking at my always cluttered desk]. I actually didn’t really believe that his clean desktop at the end of the day had to do with his father’s lesson for life. He was an extremely impatient man, and I struggled daily working in a department where no problem had been thought about more that 24 hours before it was "solved." I think about this story when Bush gets on a tear about solving some problem. I think he’s more interested in cleaning his desktop than struggling with problems.

The other part of my "state" this morning was thinking that this is a close election. The American people might actually elect Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin to the White House. This time four years ago, it was dawning on me that Bush was going to be re-elected, and I tried denial – until the night of the election when the weight of it all settled on my soul where it has lingered for four years. It’s less sure that the Republicans will prevail this time, but it’s certainly possible. It’s hard for me to fathom why. When other people say, "I don’t understand why…", I often comment, "What you really mean is that you don’t like what’s happening – not that you don’t understand." In this case, "I sure don’t like the closeness of this election." But, I also "don’t understand." I didn’t "understand" in 2004 either.

Now that I think about it, maybe my old chairman’s enjoinders got to me after all, and that’s the real cause of my "state" this morning. The Republican Administration has been on my desktop for eight very long years, and I want it cleaned off – right now.