September 18, 2004

• HURRICANES AND LIFE CHANGES

  Well, our place in Florida has come through the storms OK so far.
  I suppose I could wax philosophic and talk about hurricanes as metaphors for life, but that's kind of trite. OK, I'll do it anyway.
  Some of us are lucky enough to go through life with no hurricanes and just a few bad storms, but it seems to me that more and more of us have more and more storms. Modern life is, I suspect, really harder on us than when I was young. We are locked in a world that impinges on us harder and faster and that offers fewer and fewer safe havens.
  It seems to me that election politics are a manifestation of this. Bush & co. have for example, screwed up big time in lots of areas (foreign affairs, economy, health, security, etc.) but they are smart enough to take advantage of the voters' uncertainty about the world in general so that more and more of us seem to prefer the "evil we know" and accept their characterizations of Kerry even though there is no truth behind them.
  Kerry is in the pecular position of being critized for dwelling on Bush's negatives, of which there are many, while Bush can slander him with impunity, or so the polls seem to show.
  The storms seem to hit more and more as we get older and older and senior citizens really do need more of a helping hand in many ways, but life can be catastrophically stormy at any age.
  When the storm hits, often the only handy way to react is to take it out on your partner or friends. I suspect many marriages and friendships have been broken through no particular fault of either party, but just because of outside stresses that had no other relief valve.
  There are solutions to this kind of social problem, but so far few of us have even recognized the problem, much less looked for alternatives.

  • 10:29 am
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