The Continental Mahoods

Stated in simplest terms, the story of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden tells us that decisions have consequences. In other words, we're responsible for the consequences that result from the decisions we make. The important point, though, at least to my mind, is not the consequences, rather, we are allowed to decide.

Saying "no", at least in the sense I've been talking about it lately, is, in a manner of speaking, an act of defiance. This change of register (that is, using bigger words to describe everyday things), increases the significance of the thought. The issue now becomes one of how willing are we to defy authority. How far are we willing to go? Is it really an issue at all? I think it is.

Some of you may be a bit uneasy about changing the world at this point. It's very easy to do what's right when you don't feel under pressure, but bring up the "boss" and attitudes change quickly. I've seen it happen a thousand times. Now, I would be willing to bet that if I asked 100 of you how your relationship is to your boss, you'd tell me it was just fine. And I would also be willing to bet that in 90 of those cases, that would be a slight to significant distortion of the truth. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing anyone of lying. I'm merely suggesting that they're just being human.

Have you noticed how commercial, how financial, how economic our language has become? I'm not talking about the simple fact that things like the stock market have their own shows when they really don't deserve to be talked about at all. No, I'm talking about the shift in tone, attitude, and impact that a general change in vocabulary brings with it.

It struck me recently that not only are attention spans diminishing at a frightening rate, and not only are sound-bites getting shorter, they're also becoming emptier. When is the last time you heard a clipped quip on the news that really made any sense? I'm guessing it's been a while, because I'm having trouble finding people who say anything anymore. You would think in a situation like this one, words would become all the more important, but it seems to me that they are being emptied faster than the phrases that are supposed to give them meaning.

Violence is a sign of total frustration. When someone is backed into a corner and escape seems impossible, a common response is simply violence.

It is particularly sad, however, when it is the government – be it municipal, state, or federal – which feels compelled to act this way, for they are, at least in theory, servants of the public. I know it doesn't seem like it. Politics and governance have appeared to take on a lives of their own, or at least they appear to be living in their own little world. That's another sign of being overwhelmed by reality: retreating into one's own world. 

When I was an adolescent I had it all figured out. Together with my fellow adolescents, we knew more than all adults combined. Well, that's what we thought. A couple of years, a couple of kids, a couple of jobs, and a couple of major moves have given me reason to suspect that I might have overestimated myself then. Oh the wisdom of age.