Sunday, January 14, 2018

"Why We Are Here"

"Where is the world supposed to start again if it manages to survive Donald Trump?" der Spiegel, The Age of Fire and Fury.

The question struck me and stuck to me, and brought to mind a children's book I bought the Banshees Lo! These many years ago. It's called The Three Questions, written and illustrated by Jon J. Muth, based on a story by Tolstoy.

"When is the best time to do things?"
"Who is the most important one?"
"What is the right thing to do?"

It's a complicated world to begin with, and the advent of our current ill-favored president made it so much more complicated. You can't throw a rock in any direction without hitting a situation he has made worse simply by being the existing occupant of the Oval Office. We're far beyond the spot where putting on the waders to begin muck-out would be a reasonable response. It's awful, horrible, and just going to get worse, and yet...

People. Those complicated doofus-y naked house apes whose every institution is fatally flawed simply because the inaptly-named homo sapiens designed, constructed, and is attempting to run it - I have faith in that confused muddle known as humanity. Oh, I know that some of us are barely house-broken and shouldn't be allowed to handle so much as a wooden spoon, let alone nuclear arsenals, but any species that can produce Frida Kahlo and Irma Thomas and Grace Hopper and Jon J. Muth and Tolstoy is a species that can muck its way out of Trumpville.

"Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now.
The most important one is always the one you are with.
The most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these...are the answers to what is most important in this world."

"This is why we are here."