Dogs Running

The following is my response to a question that I had initially thought was posed rhetorically: “What have you experienced that has made you so cynical, so hopeless, so convinced all but talk radio USA and its excitable followers can lead us to salvation?”

My response: "Let me point out that you didn't answer my questions either. I would like to view our discussions as an honest exchange between friends who may agree to disagree politically but can still respect each other. Therefore, I would submit that characterizations such as "hate(ful)", "cynical" and "hopeless" are not worthy of either one of us.

"Let me begin answering your question by saying that the birth of my daughter was a seminal moment in my life. Before that, I had no interest in children. In fact, I regarded them as a nuisance. I could not imagine investing even a scrap of myself in their raising. As we had very little money at the time, I doubted that it would work out financially as well. We considered abortion, but were too cowardly to pull the trigger.

"I was a reluctant witness at the birth. When the nurse gave me my daughter to hold, a sudden change came over me. It was totally unexpected. I felt like a light was shining on us from above. I felt all warm and gooey ...and for the first time in my life I felt connected to something.

"I relate this simply to demonstrate that people can change; that change can come naturally; that change is organic; permanent. From the incredible high of that day, the interaction between me and my children only grew even more amazing with each passing day. (Our son was born a year and a half later. I went through the same routine at the hospital but this time there were no fireworks, only the quiet joy of having been chosen to care for another young life.)

"I can honestly say that I have never had a bad moment with either one of my children. It was the wife who turned out to be the problem.

"I once voted for Jessie Jackson for president. In those days I was full of vim and vigor, seeking out the 'hidden' meanings in the lyrics of Beatles songs, hoping for revolution.

"Winston S. Churchill was once to have said: 'Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." I guess I changed. It came naturally. I did not seek it. I just felt, after a while, that conservatism made more sense.

"I note that most of my friends, especially those who managed to make something of themselves in their chosen careers, have remained staunch liberals. (This includes you.) I don't really understand why. Liberalism, in the U.S. especially, has become rabid Marxism. I don't understand how the lessons of Communist Eastern Europe (among so many other sad examples) could have been so quickly forgotten. Has this now become our model? It certainly seems so.

"I'm not obsessed with it. I just watch incredulously as it happens. It's interesting (as you say.) And I try to add my two cents. It's gotten me to write again. Sometimes I astound myself with what comes out.

"Everything that is bound to happen, will happen. Of this there is no doubt. We are far too insignificant to affect such outcomes. All we can do is ride the wave. I sense a tsunami-like wave building in America unlike any we've seen before. Two blocks away from here is the Bay of Bengal where the tsunami hit several years ago. They say, the ocean got sucked out so far, that you couldn't see it anymore. Down in Mahabalipuram (where we happened to go today), ancient temples long claimed by the sea were unearthed again for a brief time. Then the sea came rushing back.

"They say, just as the sea was retreating, the stray dogs that make their home on the beach came galloping up our road as fast as they could go. Humans, on the other hand, went down to the beach to gawk. I don't believe what you're hearing is talk-radio. What you are hearing is dogs running, seeking higher ground."