After Labor Day, I took my flag down. As you can see, it was generally in a state of being all wound up. And no matter how many times I would get the ladder and straighten it out, moments later, the wind would pick up and bind it up again. Technically, this was due to the top ring having no interest whatsoever in spinning around as it was supposedly designed to do. No amount of oil or silicone lubricant could change its mind.
I gave up.
If you watch the “News,” you might think all is not well in the land of the free and the home of the brave. You probably think that whether you watch the News or not. I certainly don’t think so… But, if I may be blunt, beyond the news cycle, there ‘s that wholly appealing or unappealing world that is one day at a time. This is the one where the sun rises each morning in the east and sets each night in the west. For those possessed of 24-hr action, tweets, texts, Tik-Toks, emails, or if you’re of a certain vintage, the all-day wall-to-wall barrage of essentially the same story told in wide-eyed “Can you Believe it?” near hysteria cable TV, I’m surprised you haven’t had a heart attack or seizure by now.
And, to make matters even worse, there’s the putrid glop of the same tiring political messages repeated ad nauseum on every channel every day until the blessed time, 8pm EST (or EDT, I forget) when we count votes, watch to see if revolt takes place where freaked-out wackos run wild, and look forward to one day of rest before we’re bombarded about what the 2024 presidential election will bring.
All fall down.
But that’s if you spend your days glued to whatever means of media exposure you prefer. I prefer to turn it off. This affords me the opportunity to take stock of all the little things around the house I will be ignoring for as long as possible. The sun’s out, it’s reasonably warm—sorry to those of you in the heat wave, why not sit outside and read a book? I’m reading No Country for Old Men. A light tale of drugs, murder, and how you can’t outrun fate. Did I mention the sun is out? A slight haze of smoke from wild fires is in the air, but you can’t have it all.
Meanwhile the moles are tearing up the yard, and NFL Redzone will soon be back, thus allowing me to waste the entire morning and afternoon as they jump from game to game. And no political ads! Not too bad. Certainly the times they are a changin’, and the Queen is dead, and the southwest will soon be out of water, but that’s just the way it goes. Soon, the leaves will be falling creating another mess. No time for the weary.
Where is this leading? Like I know.
What I do know is that the sun is out and I have a book to finish.
©2022 David William Pearce
David William Pearce, Writer 