Thursday, November 12, 2020

Looking Ahead

 My son pointed out a Tweet on Twitter this weekend. It read: "Does this mean we can go back to tweeting about how long those CVS receipts are?"

I sure hope so. I think of this little corner of Al Gore's Internet where I spray my thoughts, hopes, concerns and musings with reckless abandon and I sure hope so.

Over the past couple weeks, I have made a conscious attempt to walk away from all the drama that has existed in the air and on the ground. Hard to ignore the dueling chants of "stop the count" and "count the votes" coming from within the camp of the president-past-tense. The sports metaphors have piled up like cord wood, not the least of which would be the number of games that the Oakland A's might have won if they had stopped playing in the seventh inning. The Denver Broncos might have won a few more Super Bowls if only they had to play half the game.

Forgive my digression. This is supposed to be about looking forward to a new day, in which politics and scandal don't rear their heads and interfere with the reproduction of my past. My fondness for all of popular culture has become obscured by the election of a game show host to the highest office in the land. Which means that there was blog fodder available most any time he would open his mouth or tap away on his Twitter account. It turns out this was exceptionally low-hanging fruit. So much so that I feared for the safety of my head and shoulders as I walked among it. 

As we all walked among it. And it occurs to me at this instant that referring to the president-past-tense as a game show host does a complete disservice to the memory of Alex Trebek. I would so very much like to spend more time in TV land, dredging up memories of shows that many of you may have forgotten. Like Working Stiffs, starring Michael Keaton and Jim Belushi.  You needed to be reminded or perhaps introduced to this piece of fluff so very much more than you needed to be reminded or perhaps introduced to the latest bile issuing from the mouth of the president-past-tense. You wanted to know that Penny Marshall directed the pilot. You needed to know that a pre-PeeWee Paul Reubens was a featured player in this ensemble. Good luck finding him unless you watch a full episode...

Because I know that there is still a world of trouble and problems we need to focus on repairing, replacing, and resolving. But maybe now we have a little more time for the truly frivolous. For a moment or two, we can, as the Boss suggests, "just stand back and let it all be." 

And then it's back to work, building it back better. Maybe we can even do something about those incredibly long CVS receipts. 

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