House of Eratosthenes

We started the New Year on a decidedly low note. By “we,” I mean in the office. A wonderful friend is now gone, his departure an unexpected one, and we’ve been struggling with a problem as old as death itself: How do we keep our thoughts properly trained on a future without him, when the past burns so brightly?

Good times. Working together, playing together, mutual appreciation for valuable talents that made money, and equally valuable talents that did not. Things he said that might’ve had hidden meaning — or might not have. Things we could’ve done to lighten a heavy load — or maybe we couldn’t have, or maybe if we could have, would not have so lightened.

His flame was extinguished quietly, while we clinked glasses and renewed our annual pledge to live together in brotherly love. Candle

We’re left in shock, to ponder the meaning of this little holiday pledge we made, and to look at old pictures. “Team” pictures. And wonder how much time is left behind each one of those other faces.

So…Iowa has “happened” now, and I’m supposed to have an opinion, is that it? Sorry, I don’t much have it in me. I do seem to notice an overall trend where candidates from this party or that party, lag behind for no explainable reason if they value life too much. If they think it’s too worthy of a solid defense. Their counterparts, the candidates who find new and creative ways to cheapen life, to say it is a casually exchanged thing, a fungible thing — they surge ahead and nobody can explain why.

I think I can explain why.

Houseflies are not burdened with philosophy. By that I mean, they don’t wrestle with the meaning of life. They aren’t equipped for it and there would be little point to it. This spares the housefly from pain and discomfort which visits itself upon we, the humans. When life is, by design, a quick and casual thing then thinking is unnecessary. You do what is expected of you until it’s time to clock out.

And so it seems to me Iowa has been won by “phenomenon” candidates, those candidates who spent energy that convention earmarks for defining issues, to instead buttress their positions as “rock stars.” The surnames of those candidates have become names of fads and fashions.

We’re running a twenty-one-month election. It doesn’t seem to have been anybody’s idea. Nobody thinks it’s a step in the right direction, but we’re doing it. And ironically, by running an election longer than any election that has ever come before it, we’re doing a greater job than we have ever done before, of living for the moment. Just for today. Like houseflies.

The nation is swept by this “craze” that says we are no longer entitled to any kind of break from election campaigns. Maybe houseflies aren’t deserving of such breaks. And I suppose it just makes sense that when one man lives like a housefly, he wants all other men to live that way. Meanwhile, I’m reminded of how precious life is, and that if it somehow isn’t, it is personally important to each one of us to make it that way.

Vicious crazy men around the planet want to kill innocent people to make political statements. It seems that if there is one popularly-supported remedy to this problem, it is to make health care universal and affordable, and maybe to increase the minimum wage. Those things would make life more comfortable. But they wouldn’t make it precious. To the contrary: Even a housefly values life more than a “kept” man, whose every necessity in life is provided on a guarantee. There are flyswatters and cobwebs to be avoided.

And so by worshipping rock stars instead of electing presidents, by living our every moment in this election cycle or that one, and by responding to deliberate murderous threats by ignoring the problem and providing more guarantees to ourselves, we’re on the brink of discovering a brand new species. And becoming it.

Any other time I’d courteously disagree with this course, but sympathize nevertheless. Now, I’m having a tough time even sympathizing. How does this seem like a good idea to anybody?

The trick of life is to know what’s important, and to cherish it while you have it. The problem is you usually find out the hard way. The day the wife went on ahead pretty much jammed that down my throat.

I have watched this current election process with mild curiousity, very little interest, and mostly with disdain. Various politicians of various stripes are all telling me what they can give me, or what they can do for me, and it leads me to one question:

Are peoples lives’ so bankrupt that only politicians can seemingly provide them with happiness?

That sure seems to be what is being implied. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think so. If true that also is a pretty unique set of affairs. The very fact that the politicians seem to think we want them campaigning earlier indicates to me that they think they are of huge import to our lives.

The media seems to be following the same trend as well. I have noticed this for some time, well maybe I always have. They act as if people can’t figure anything out without their intervention.

Is there a school one goes to, to develop this kind of ego?
- Allen L | 01/04/2008 @ 15:57

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HousefliesFriday, January 4th, 2008

Houseflies
Friday, January 4th, 2008