Monday is no time for Rumination

I have come to the conclusion that the political sphere, at least at the national level, does not require my vociferous opinion.  I’ve had many over the last few years. Shamefully, my Facebook wall is littered with passionate posts about dead political matters.  Sometimes looking through my Facebook is like looking at a car with faded Kerry/Edwards sticker on the trunk.  Who can countenance such failure?  They make those things magnetic for a reason.

Besides, no one seems to take my advice. I’m not sure it’s all that good.  Rarely can we see the whole picture.  So few opinions are data-driven.  Even fewer options have easily accessible footnotes.   I heard someone say that they didn’t know anyone who died from Covid-19. Maybe that’s true. Yet 50,000 have died as of this morning.  The world is so big and so vast that my little mind can’t put its mental arms around it.

Or maybe, if I may shift my analogy, it is like the great ocean itself on which my little dinghy is afloat.  Sure I can row–and row I must, for I am an industrious man.  But no amount of rowing will free me from the wide, swift current of reality.

So when you ask me what I think about old Senator so-and-so, take note of my reaction.  I’ll just kick a rock or something. Maybe I’ll whistle a tune and wonder what your dinner plans are.

The Zeitgeist–that force of history unfolding–Nature experiencing herself–must get a kick out of all these passionate people.  The Absurd never had a more apt subject. Of course, I could be accused of apathy or even worse, disregard.  I am a member of generation X.  Newsweek told me a long time ago that I was apathetic.

So here’s the question:   Lean in or Let go?  Take the path of Lao Tzu or Jocko?   Every couple of weeks I tighten my belt and tuck in my tummy and declare it’s high time to get my shit together set the world straight.  Other times, I sit back and let my belly tumble and regard the universe as always, already perfect.  I am reminded now of this quote from the Tao Te Ching:

“When a fool hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud. And if he didn’t laugh, it wouldn’t be the Tao.”