ThiemeWorks - The Missing Link

to which I responded:

unfortunately I responded the same way while watching his (Obama's) dynamic victory speech in South Carolina. "If he genuinely threatens the powerful interests he attacks on the stump, he'll be killed," was the comment, I believe. A coalition of haters and shooters is always in the wings.

I found Caroline Kennedy's statement sweet and lovely and about on the same level as the recent movie "Enchanted." "I am sending you to a place where there are no happy endings," said the witch, except in the film, Disney finished it with exactly that, using of course a cartoon (what else?) It is wonderful that the impact of her dad (do you know, "Camelot" was not used until after 1963, not during or before?) on those of us who were young then, that charismatic campaigner in 1960, has remained indelible for some, while the details of his (and his brother's) ruthlessness, extralegal activities, and pathological assault on the same mobsters who helped to elect him, have all faded from memory. (Can you imagine the response if W reversed the post-Kennedy law with the help of Scalia and Company and appointed Jeb - or his dad - as Attorney General?)

I do believe Obama is giving a new generation a splendid illusion of hopefulness and that's what youth is about, fond and cherished illusions that stir and animate the soul, while middle age is about de-illusioning as the archetypal projections of that same soul shred like old newspaper in the wind and driving rain, and then senescence as they used to call post-sixty (now we call it "the portal to the next fifty years") is about realistic strategies to achieve the best we can get in the face of what we know is real. Maybe McCain who was tortured for so long and like the Kafka protagonist in The Harrow, saw the light with shining eyes at the end of his ordeal, best understands what was and is and is to come.

This is an optimistic statement and hope it is read as such. Afghanistan deteriorates, Iraq is fragmented and bloody, and the real problem now - the mountains of Pakistan/Afghanistan where both Taliban and Al Queda find support and safe haven - are (mostly) off limits. The Brits promised both Jews and Arabs Palestine after WW1 which ought to remind us that long-term consequences don't just go away. Yet here in the upper Midwest, the softly falling snow blurs all of the rough edges, buries the landscape with its dark shadows, quiets the wind, and reminds us that beauty and peace can be found in blessed forgetfulness ... think the opening scene of Fargo, before the violence begins, and be grateful.