POLITICS
I Felt The Earth Move
On a quiet Sunday afternoon, the earth shook, and everything changed in an instant
“I feel the earth move, under my feet. I feel the sky tumbling down.” — Carole King
I was sitting on the beach yesterday, my mind blissfully empty and uncharacteristically untroubled. There is something magical about the beach in summer that allows you to be wholly engrossed while doing absolutely nothing. Even my wife, who has trouble sitting still, can sit on the beach for hours at a time, days on end, accomplishing nothing other than browning her skin and feeling satisfied and fulfilled while doing it. It’s some sort of dark sorcery, I guess. Hypnotic mindfulness that smells of coconut and salt air. The white noise of the ocean, occasionally broken up by the sound of a gull’s cry and the patter of the ice cream man. You can forget that the world is on fire.
I had been lost in thought, contemplating our current political circus and wondering how I might be more effective with the other clowns in the car. It has occurred to me how unlikely it is that I’ll ever change anyone’s mind with a direct plea for logic and reason. We all know what we think, or at least think we know what we know. But writing is how I process the world…
