The New Ordeal
Monstrosity, disaster, government by the unthinking, the entire political landscape made up of people I don’t like, or don’t much like, don’t trust since they don’t do what whey say they’ll do or do the opposite of what they say they’ll do. My political beliefs are now divided into people I tolerate and those I loathe, I’m sorry to say.
Opening the newspaper, as I do every morning, rain or shine, is The New Ordeal and has been for some time. There’s almost nothing of real value in it, nothing of any human nourishment other than the obituaries, which I scan every morning while I drink coffee, seeing old dear friends picked-off, one after another, by the enemy, the enemy dressed in combat camouflage confiscated in foreign wars.
Where will my mourning get me? Closer to the end myself, I’m afraid. Well, we’ll see, won’t we? I have to keep thinking, grabbing that old stingray as Mr. Socrates called thinking. What else am I to do? I’ve made my own weapons, refusal and silence; I suppose they could be used against me, but I’m keeping both well hidden. O, what a mess we’ve made, quite a mess, and little to do about it but complain, or sweep the mess into little corners so others won’t notice.
Only to be of some use in my own little space to those I love, my antecedents and my dependents. Perhaps there’s a tiny minority there that will support me? I’ll keep looking, I’ll sharpen my vices to a fine point if only to protect myself, whiskey and the reading of the classics. I’ll drag the paintbrush along for the ride too, let it have its way on the canvas, and a few well chosen words in the notebook I keep of my discontents. What else can be done, I wonder? It’s one ordeal after another now, a whole pile of ordeals I’m afraid, from large to small and from small to large. Putting a sock on my foot is now, officially, an ordeal, as is the shoe—that the two of them so often oppose me! And then once my feet are installed in their proper compartments, I must count my steps to 10,000 on the little mobile device I carry around with me all day so as to not lose a step or a beat, the device also monitoring my heart rate.