LET’S HAVE A MORATORIUM ON CHEWING

Sometimes it's this and sometimes it's that. Some of us clowns can juggle two feelings at once.

Hey, P – what’s with all the gotta show some caring for the downtrodden Trump supporters, then a week later you’re trashing them for destroying the country? Which is it?

The former. And the latter.

Granted, it can be hard to chew and maintain a train of thought at the same time. But when not chewing, we can envision a pro and a con scenario about anything at the same time. And feel all the feelings that both sides stir up.

One side of the duality kick in after Charlottesville and watching Trump a week later stir up his base with rage-inducing fairytales; some invented on the spot. It brings to mind the willful ignorance and bigoted scapegoating that’s tearing the nation apart; and voting to institutionalize every facet of their own despair. Meanwhile their righteous self-importance is dragging the rest of us and, potentially, the rest of the planet with them. That god-given freedom to lock and load accountability and bootstrap-hoisting effort; then shoot it at everybody else.

Most of the time I can see and feel my way past my profound disagreement with much of their worldview to get to my empathy zone. Then my attention is grabbed by a factual narrative of the corrosion of the blue collar middle class – where I came from – at the hands of predatory banking, business and politicians. That empathy zone often brings up the shortcomings of the ideological tribe aligned with my coastal cosmopolitan artist/intellectual side.

When all this dualistic thinking wears me out I start chewing again to relax into mindless stupor for a while. Nothing unique there.

It’s amazing how many simultaneous thoughts and feelings we can hold when we’re not chewing on sugary resentment junk food.

— Polar Levine, News Goo Dissection, August 24, 2017

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