Maybe yes, maybe no.
Screeds come to me in a variety of places - in the car, the shower, during a meal, but rarely from someone else, and at least this friend was kind enough not to include several ideas along with his remonstrative observation. Having done this sort of thing on radio for several years in the distant past, I learned quickly that any idea from someone else was, for some reason, not usable - perhaps because it was not my idea or didn't fit whatever sensibility I have developed over the years.
I did think about the apparent drought in the arrival of a new idea, and while listening to the radio one day, I heard that the stretch of gray days - that is, days without sun, had set some sort of record for our teentsy part of the planet, a record untouched for years, and one of those records kept by people who should have gotten around to keeping track of more important things.
Gray days got me thinking about colors. Here in Minnesota the dominant winter color is white, with occasional blots of dark mud - the thing about gray is a recent phenomenon. White or gray or both make some people blue here, even people who describe themselves as red.
Most political red and blue people, just before they start talking loudly in black and white, seem to be suffering from a case of seething purple rage.
For me, I admire those citizens and politicians who appreciate gray, which probably means they are more interested in what politicians can accomplish than the green required to put them in a corporate or issue-oriented pocket.
I haven't brought this up because when politics enters the world of the screed, I turn a pale shade of yellow and try to avoid it...and while typing this, I've tried every way I can to move in another direction.
And haven't found one.
Let's appreciate gray - the calm tonality of compromise, concession, and progress, however, haltingly it may come when the school board, city council, legislature - or even Congress, convene to struggle with issues facing most of us. Too dull for the networks, especially Fox, but suitable for us in our ordinary tax-paying, bill-paying, just trying-to-get-along and keep-our-heads-above water lives.
It's the shouting from the red and blue people who view the world in black and white which has put me into a darkling funk these last several weeks. Nobody can think in the midst of all the yelling.
If you can ignore the cacophony, try to take time to enjoy the golden light of the sun, whenever it appears; whether it shines on your face or in your soul, enjoy it in the silence of your own thinking.
Now that's a good resolution!
