Month: October 2020

Hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. 

I am weary these days. We live in a world in which we have been bombarded with hyperbole day after day after day. The purpose of such overstatement is not to inform us but to propagandize us. Hyperbole stokes fear and confusion. It is meant to appeal to our basest instincts. It trivializes logic and tempts us to react more from emotions than thinking. Traditional and social media are flooded with it so much so that many begin to emulate the soundbites that have captured their minds. The drums are banging, the cadence is repeated in catchy phrases again and again and again until we accept the snake oil as a panacea of truth and buy into a giant pyramid scheme that leads us to a cult like existence. 

Of course we tell ourselves that these are are the extreme fringes at work and yet bits and pieces of such hyperbole make their way into the thinking of people that we know and even our elected officials who once seemed so rational and clear headed. Ordinary people begin to fear the worst. They choose sides and isolate themselves from those whose ideas seem dangerously different. They begin to demonize others as dangerous opposition. The divisions grow and the hyperbole becomes ever louder because now it is being accepted as gospel. When we have a need to unite we are unable because trust in one another has evaporated. We no longer know who or what to believe. 

Our nation has in many ways become its own reality show in which we all have parts to play while being manipulated and directed by forces that we never actually see. Voices behind the curtain ask us to believe that half of the country is intent on taking away every single freedom that we have ever known and transforming America into a godless communist gulag. The other half is supposedly the spawn of Hitler with its fascism and army of Proud Boys. Sinister voices threaten us that one way or another our country is on a precipice from which it cannot survive. Doomsday seems to be just over the horizon. 

It feels as though every single thing is being driven by political propaganda, by hyperbole. We have taken all of our first amendment rights and made them issues of fear. We confuse the roles of our three branches of government, attempting to turn them all into vassals of the executive branch, followers of a single party, a single set of beliefs, a single individual to whom we cede even the power over our health. 

It is as though we have somehow forgotten that our founding fathers did not want a monarchy or a dictator or a cult. They purposely separated government and religion so that no one faith would dominate others. In the early years they did not even have political parties. Each individual was important (at least each free white male) with provisions for equalizing the freedoms even more in the future to include all races, sexes and creeds. Our constitution is living and breathing and changing to reflect the times. As long as we staunchly protect its intent not to create dynasties and to be open to differing ideas we will flourish. Doing this has always required a willingness to accept our differences and work them out in a spirit of compromise. We should all shun attempts to divide us. 

Hyperbole and politics have even invaded our response to Covid-19. The extremes are visible. Even now we hear groups insisting that our efforts to keep the virus contained have been too extreme. They insist that we should return to total normalcy and let the dice fall where they may. Those who feel this way don’t seem to realize that things are more horrific because half of the population has been willing to take precautions. In doing so they have kept the infection rate down. Our seeming good fortune is not because the virus is a hoax but because many have followed the science. If we throw caution to the wind in a grand hyperbolic gesture scientists tell us to expect more suffering and death. 

A nation gripped by fear turns on itself. Beware of anyone peddling prognostications of gloom and doom or anyone whom we repeatedly catch in a lie. Extreme language is often a key that we are being subjected to manipulation. Adolf Hitler made the Germans afraid of economic want and the threat of communism. He used their fears to increase his own power. Lenin took advantage of war and poverty to overtake Russia and replace the government of the Czar with communism. Dictators first turn people of a nation against each other. They divide and then they conquer. When we see those signs it is time to ignore the noise that they peddle and use our common sense and our freedoms to set things right. 

This is the United States of America. Each person’s vote is sacred. Each branch of government is there to protect our freedoms. No single person is the key to our liberty. We do not bow or curtsy in adulation. We are the people. We are the life the liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Let no individual or group or power behind a curtain ever take that away from us. Just go vote.  

Did you hear the one about the man whose wife called him one day and told him that his cat got on the roof, fell and died? The distraught man schooled his wife in how to break such devastating news more gently. “First you call and tell me that my cat is on the roof. Wait for a while and then call again to inform me that the cat fell from the roof but he is under the care of a veterinarian. When you have given me enough time to deal with the truth you finally call and say that the doctor was unable to save the cat. The cat is dead.” The wife was sorry that she had been so insensitive and she swore that she had learned her lesson. A few months later she called her husband at work and calmly told him, “Your mother is on the roof.”

In many ways this has been the approach that our president has taken in guiding us during the pandemic. In an effort not to frighten us he has often downplayed the severity of Covid-19, insisting that the seasonal flu is far more dangerous and assuring us that the novel virus will one day miraculously go away. He eschews masks and tells us not to fear Covid-19. He wants us to live as normally as possible and just get through this time with as little disruption as possible. 

While his intentions may have been good, the reality is that he has actually prolonged our suffering and perhaps even contributed to more deaths that there needed to be. It would have been better if he had united us in our efforts to protect ourselves from contagion from the outset. instead of minimizing the impact of Covid-19. As a nation we have shown time and again that we are capable of handling the truth and making sacrifices when they are needed. The pandemic might have been a moment when we set aside our differences and worked together but the president politicized the virus and led many among us to believe that we need not allow it to have any great impact on our lives. He blithely held packed rallies and garden parties while discouraging his supporters from taken very basic precautions. Now he and much of his staff is infected with Covid-19.

This might have been a moment when he apologized for his mistake and urged the citizenry to be more careful than he has been. Instead he seems to be using the old dog bite theory of denying that he has ever done anything wrong. It goes something like this, “My dog could not have bitten you because he does not bite. My dog may bite sometimes, but he didn’t bite you. If my dog bit you it did not hurt you. I can accept that my dog bit you, but you provoked him. What are you talking about? I don’t have a dog.”

So here we are almost eight months into the pandemic and it feels as though we are still not getting the truth from President Trump. He does not appear to trust us enough to keep be honest about what is happening. He has changed his story again and again and he seems to think that he has successfully fooled us enough that we will be willing to simply carry on as though the danger has passed. He wants us to view him as a tough guy who is not going to let the virus stop him from guiding the nation. He does not seem to understand that all we ask of him is that he demonstrate compassion, honesty and trustworthiness. We need for him to acknowledge mistakes, own them and then demonstrate a willingness to make needed changes moving into the future.  

We are tired of photos and rallies and flags and salutes. What we want is leadership and that leadership must be totally honest all the time. It must include concern for everyone, not just those of us in the red states. Our president must provide example for us by following the science, not polls.

I saw Ronald Reagan’s daughter speaking recently. She noted that when her father was shot by John Hinckley he worried about those who had caught bullets because they were near him. He never again attended church services while he was still president because he felt that innocent people might be hurt if another attempt on his life was made. She said that he always considered the good of the people of America before his own well being. That is what a strong leader does. 

Not only can we handle the truth, we must demand the truth. We are weary of stories of cats and dogs designed to fool us and make us feel good. We want to genuinely discuss the state of the pandemic. We want Fauci and Birx and Redfield back to tell us where we stand and what we must do. We want to trust our government again.

 

I saw a post meant to be a put down of a young woman who had majored in Liberal Arts in college. She held a sign asking for help because she was unable to find a job and owed twenty thousand dollars in student loan debt. Next to the sad image of the girl was a young man with a sign boasting that he had learned a trade and had a great paying job and no debt. It was obviously meant to make the argument that a degree in Liberal Arts is a waste of time and money and such majors should probably be dropped from university offerings. It is a trope that is rather popular these days, but I would argue that it would be horrific to blindly condemn certain types of learning as useless without a critical examination of the value of a foundation in liberal arts.

There was a time when a Liberal Arts education was the foundation of higher learning. Often it represented the first level of post high school education designed to create an individual with a great breadth of knowledge. Sadly the more “practical” majors have taken favored status in recent years. We warn our young that they are more likely to gain employment with a study of engineering or business  than history or English literature. It has become an often accepted given that has replaced the old way of hiring Liberal Arts majors for their wide range general skills to a preference for graduates with more specific technical abilities. Over time society has seemingly devalued the liberal arts to the extent that we all actually denigrate those who still seek to follow such majors. 

I would instead propose that advanced civilization would lose a great deal if we were to junk the great courses in favor of only those that lead directly to something that appears to be useful. There is no doubt that we need engineers, accountants, chemists and such but those versed in history, philosophy, literature, languages, and the social sciences have much to offer that we would miss were we to be successful in guiding all young students away from the liberal arts. 

History teaches us that we humans have maintained similar characteristics over time. It outlines where we have been and points in the directions into which we are going. It is important for understanding the complexities of our relationships and meting out justice with knowledge of both the past and the present. Geography teaches us how the earth itself often determines cultures and economic patterns. Psychology and Sociology explain why we behave in particular ways. Philosophy explores the very essence of how we think. Literature is a gateway into the ways in which we humans soar above the animals or devolve into the destructive urges of hubris. Political Science tells us about the systems that we have invented for governing and how they differ according to the needs of a particular society. In other words a Liberal Arts degree informs us in ways that prompt consideration of ideas, precedents and critical analysis. It is the very foundation of great leadership and the ability to accurately judge the merit of how we should do things. It is far from a waste of time, money or effort. In fact Liberal Arts majors bring critical skills of logic and analysis to education, business, communication, the law and countless other professions. 

One of my greatest concerns about today’s world is the ignorance of the world that is shared by far too many people. Few are well versed in history and so they simply accept that we are where we are as a matter of fate Knowledge of political systems has been reduced to stereotypes and anecdotes. In the United States most people speak only a single language. Reading has often been reduced to browsing graphic novels or enjoying simple stories of pulp fiction rather than seeking the beauty of finely written words. Rarely is any student taught the fundamentals of rhetoric or critical thinking. We are so busy mastering what we see as useful that we forget that one of the greatest skills of all is learning how to learn, because very little in the practical or technical world stays the same over time. 

A well educated and modern society demands that we have the so called “practical” majors along with a fleet of individuals trained in trades like plumbing or mechanics and such. In our quest to train our young, however, we must also honor those who maintain the importance of the Liberal Arts. We need people who are willing to continue the march of civilization through both science and the arts. When we think of Leonardo da Vinci surely we can see that both his study of human anatomy and his representation of it in great drawings and paintings were incredible contributions to society. Galileo helped us to understand the universe but Shakespeare explored the universe of human nature. How can we possibly hold one in higher value than the other, and yet it is what we do each time we poke fun at someone with a degree in one of the arts while celebrating those in the sciences or who have certifications in a particular trade. 

I have learned as much from reading a great historical tract on the rise of fascism as I have from studying a mathematical algorithm, All learning widens our horizons and pulls us from a narrowness of mind. Perhaps it is time that we celebrate all knowledge and those who put in the time, effort and money to gain it. It is never a waste of time to learn something that we did not know only moments before. Ours should be a lifetime of research and analysis. If we all did that I suspect that we would be far less inclined to engage in petty squabbles or unproven lies. We would know how to spot a hoax or the how to detect the difference between facts and opinions. That sad young woman with the sign should not have to defend her choice of studying Liberal Arts. Instead she should be celebrated as a benefit and important contributor to our society. Like the monks of old who toiled over the copying of great manuscripts our Liberal Arts majors are preserving knowledge that we must never lose.

As our election nears and Covid-19 seems unwilling to just go away it is increasingly difficult to find a sense of calm. Our nation is generally riled up and there is an uneasiness even between friends and family members who disagree on how to bring a semblance of normalcy back into our lives. As we navigate through the emotional waters each day we search for moments of serenity, for surely if we do not calm down we will find ourselves in the middle of an eruption that makes the first presidential debate appear to be a model of congeniality. Feelings are not just being worn on our sleeves but consume our entire beings as we worry about the future of of families and our nation. We know that the intensity is not good for our mental health, but what are we to do?

I have found that just ignoring reality is unlikely to cure our woes. There are moments in life that we must face head on. Doing research, reading about the issues and then settling on a possible personal solution gives us a sense of at least being in control of our own thoughts. Such contemplation requires finding a quiet spot where we feel comfortable and able to sort out the confusion of our minds. It is a luxury in which we should indulge especially if we feel as though we are surrounded by chaos. We owe it to ourselves to pray and meditate rather than ceaselessly worry. Sometimes doing so may require us to arise before the rest of the household is awake or wait until they have all gone to sleep in the dark of night. 

In my recent travels to Colorado I stayed in a cabin atop Storm Mountain about fifteen miles from Estes Park. Each morning just before the sun arose a nearby rooster awakened me with his crowing. His cries for the start of a new day occurred just as the sun began to rise over the horizon when there was still a kind of chill in the air. I found myself following his command to awaken. I’d don my slippers and put a warm sweater over my pajamas and tiptoe into the kitchen to prepare a cup of tea. I’d sit on the porch of the cabin to watch that little slice of the world slowly coming to life. I found great comfort in the simplicity of the routine. 

Not far from where I was staying wildfires were burning. The news of our country and the world continued at its frantic pace. I worried about my aunt who was seriously ill with Covid-19. Reality still lurked behind the curtain of the pastoral scene but somehow that rooster and those early morning sunrises reassured me that I was part of a history far grander than the tiny moment of the present. The cycle of life is as steady as the rotation of the earth as it revolves around the sun. The year 2020 is but one of thousands, perhaps a bit trying but no more important to the cadence of life than the one in which my great grandfather awoke to don his military uniform for war against his once fellow Americans. The present is but a point on a continuum of human attempts to survive. The truth is that somehow we always find a way to overcome the most horrific moments even as our lives are utterly changed by them.

I am back home now and there is no rooster to foretell of the coming day but I somehow hear him in my heart. I still arise to the quiet of the house. I wait for the sun with my cup of tea. I listen to the sounds of my neighbors leaving for work or boarding buses to travel to school. I close my eyes and see the valley of Storm Mountain in my mind. I revel in the peacefulness of the image that will not forsake me. I say my morning prayers and check to see what has happened during the night. I plow on and even though doing so feels so much more difficult than it did a year ago I understand that there is a constancy in our human determination to make things right even as we struggle with so many difficulties that were once unimaginable. 

I suppose that we each have different ways of dealing with challenges but I worry about those who seem unable to confront their anxieties. They appear to lie to themselves about reality and pretend that just indulging themselves will chase away their fears. They do not want to sacrifice or change or gaze upon upsetting ideas. They attempt to make the rest of the world fit neatly into their own preferences. They avoid anything that upsets them, isolating themselves into a world of their own making that has no room for differences that they are unwilling to accept.

We are all in this crazy moment together. We are not just one family, one city, one state, one country but most importantly one world. The rooster on Storm Mountain will crow just as magnificently whether he is there or in Africa or the Middle East or Europe or South America. He will adapt to his environment just as we too must do when things change. Our best moments have always come when we agreed to work together. 

I have faith the we will ultimately use our talents to lift ourselves from all of the difficulties that plague us just as that rooster uses his. My early morning meditations and readings have assured me that good ultimately triumphs but it only happens when each of us is willing to do some heavy lifting and make necessary sacrifices for the common good. 

Traveling in the time of Covid-19 can be rather difficult. I have no desire to risk getting on a plane and I have yet to eat inside a restaurant since the pandemic came to our shores. I am not particularly confident that a hotel room will be as clean as I wish it to be. That’s why our little trailer suddenly became one of the best investments that we have ever made. 

Our first journey was only about four hours away from home. It was a great practice run for a trip that we recently made to Colorado. We managed to spend eleven days away from home and not once eat out or stay in a motel. With a bit of planning we were a self contained unit that travelled a contactless  two thousand miles. We stayed in lovely RV parks the whole time with only minimal and brief interactions with strangers, always with our masks clamped tightly on our faces. 

We drove from the Houston area to Ardmore, Oklahoma on the first day, arriving in mid afternoon. We had decided not to beat ourselves to death by driving into the night. Ours was a relaxing vacation that gave us time for leisurely evenings of dinner and movies in our little home on wheels. The park in Ardmore was spotlessly clean and even boasted an on site RV repairman. Our site gave us a view of a little manmade lake perched next to a swimming pool. We decided that this might be a great place for a short get away even after Covid-19 is little more than a horrid memory. 

Our next stop was in Russell, Kansas another rather delightful little park where we enjoyed a fall breeze over a glass of wine. Along the way we had viewed well manicured farms and the glory of middle America so our evening was filled with commentaries about the beauty of mid America and our gratefulness for those who farm to keep our tables filled with bounty.

By day three we had reached Loveland, Colorado where we parked our trailer for the next five days. We headed to my brothers’ cabin in Drake which is fifteen miles from Estes Park. We met up with my brother and sister-in-law who, like us, had been self quarantined since early March. We felt quite certain that everyone was Covid free because we had not been exposed to people during all of the ensuing months. 

We enjoyed the wonders of Rocky Mountain National Park for days. Timed reservations are in effect to keep crowding down. Everyone that we encountered was wearing masks and we complied as well. It was only when nobody was nearby that we removed the cloth coverings from our faces. We became accustomed to wearing them and sometimes even forgot that they were still on our faces when we returned to the car. Compiling with safety measures was a very small price to pay for the glorious luxury of enjoying the wonders of nature.

The Rocky Mountain National Park area is stunningly beautiful at this time of year. The trees are gloriously shimmering with leaves of yellow, gold, orange and red. We found ourselves in awe at virtually every turn. We took hikes and snapped photos all along the way and returned to the cabin each evening filled with a joy that we had not experienced for many months.

I suppose that because there were fewer people everywhere the wildlife was more abundant than I had ever before seen. We even had a moose run past us while we were sitting beside a river. I finally saw bighorn sheep walking along the edges of outcroppings and heard the bugling of a male elk. Even the rooster that lives near the cabin where we were staying seemed to be crowing a bit more jubilantly than usual. 

We did very little in Estes Park, a lovely town filled with little shops that we have rarely failed to explore. This time we agreed that we would not push our luck by visiting each store but we wanted some taffy and felt comfortable going inside to purchase it because of the strenuous mandates for safety. The county rules insisted that only four people be inside the small stores at any time and everyone had to wear masks. All of the precautions were strictly and rather cheerfully enforced which greatly elevated our comfort levels. 

In the evenings we might have built a fire but a burn ban was in effect. Not far from the cabin firefighters were battling a wildlife that has already consumed thousands of acres. We checked the fire reports each day to determine whether there was impending danger on Storm Mountain where we were staying. Luckily our area was spared. 

On one of our daily excursions we drove past the Longs Peak area to get better photos of that magnificent mountain. Along the way we encountered St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic Church where we stopped to say a few prayers. Then we browsed in the quaint gift shop.. I decided to purchase a rosary to say some prayers for my Aunt Valeria who had been battling Covid-19. She is one hundred one years old and I had been greatly concerned about her. I told the cashier why I wanted the lovely beads and she urged me to go back to the church to put my aunt’s name in the register. She indicated that a prayer group would pray for her that very afternoon, so I did as she requested. Later that evening I learned that my Aunt Valeria had somewhat improved so I celebrated that small victory with my family. Only last week my aunt tested negative for the virus and was steadily becoming stronger. Somehow I felt that my chance encounter had led to some powerful heavenly interventions on her behalf.

We had so much fun being out in the world once again and sharing time with my brother and sister-in-law. We talked and played games and laughed and enjoyed good home cooking every single day. This turned out to be one of the best vacations I have ever had. It’s simplicity made it even more meaningful. There was healing power in warmth and friendship, being in close proximity to nature, and watching humanity making the best of a difficult situation. 

We headed back home by retracing our steps in reverse. Once again our little trailer accommodated us well. I am ready to face a few more months of whatever comes our way because I now know that we can hitch up and take off and still feel the freedom of the road any time that we become bogged down with the weight of the world.