The truth, to soothe the heart, that is

You want to know a dark, dirty secret in my life?

I hate politics, is the truth. And I hate it more the more time I spend with it, really. I'd give it up, altogether, if it didn't matter to have some more honest reflection on all of it.

I have this really strange, ambivalent relationship with politics.

I care a lot about keeping people alive. And safe. And unoppressed. Free. I care a lot about freedom. And liberal values. Liberal education. And the far better world it makes available. I care a lot about freedom and the better opportunities it offers. And I have always admired the courage of all the folks I read about and learned about in school who challenged us to make that realizable for me. And you. And all of us who take it for granted.

And following politics and governing affairs and such is just a logical extension of all that.

But the truth is that I would far rather be making something more beautiful, in this world.

Because the more I study the ugliness that humanity has to offer, including the foulness of almost all things political, the more I yearn for something more beautiful. More touching. More loving. More decent. Just for my own sake, I suppose.

Hence Jack Johnson. And Ingrid Michaelson. And all those folks who open hearts when the world would settle for something more heartsick.

I love people who make me laugh, too. The Stephen Colberts. The Matt Stones and Trey Parkers.

But I just really begin to yearn for something more beautiful in the world the more time I spend with the ugly. And every effort made to make it look respectable. Or honest. Or anything of the sort.

Especially when we blame the beauty for our ugliness. Our compassion for our mean-spiritedness. Our love for our indifference.

The more I hear jackasses blame decent folks for the mess they've made of the world, the more I yearn for such loving, decent, beautiful folks in my life.

I'm working on how to offer that up in more graceful trappings.

But I must say that it is the things that touch my heart that I live for the more I see the uglier side of human nature.

And the more I want some kind of contribution of my own to offer, in that vein.

To soothe the heart. I suppose. In a world consumed with jading it.

When we're honest

The embodiment of everything that is wrong with politics.



The notion that more aggression and dirty pool, on the part of the press, politicians, activists, and the like is progress and that honest discussion and more genuine concern for others is responsible for all our problems is the self-serving way for all these folks to say:

"We fuck everything up. Constantly. But we're not responsible for any of it. We just want the power to determine the choices of everyone else. Not because we've earned peoples' trust. But because we've put the fear of God into any more honest discussion that would have any more genuine concern for the people involved."

If you or anyone you know are wondering why people - including kids - have so little faith in governing and most major institutions, right now, this is the reason.

Power in lieu of all of our most honest values.

Because we said so.

The failed parenting, teaching, and governing philosophy of many a generation.

Progress being the movement away from all that. Perpetually. The powerful be damned.

My children deserve a better example. And to be well-loved. And an honest reflection on all this. That this is not honest. No matter how much hot sauce you put on that crap sandwich.

Back to work. On my example.

And the rest of what really matters when we're honest.