Yesterday's furor over the eclipse of the sun
left many of us in a daze. Frankly I was not
ready for such a disruptive event. When the
realization of it's immanent arrival finally
dawned on me - I rushed downtown to buy
protective glasses. Upon arrival at Adorama
on West 18th I realized I was not alone in my
angst. Post waiting on a line that stretched far
down the block I walked out with five pairs
of eclipse glasses for twenty dollars. Only to
later be offered a free pair by two Chiquitas
standing near a gigantic banana on Madison
Square shouting "the banana sun cometh."
Life is if nothing else a gamble. Thus much
like what happened to me last Sunday - one
can easily bump into an interloping banana
peel. Like it or not we're often blindsided by
events beyond our control. Much like some
wayward moth we can get burned if events
ignite and we happen to be all too close for
comfort. As was the case with our Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week during
President Trump's incendiary press conference.
Subsequently asked by three hundred of his
Yale Alumni to resign, he again stood behind
his man. Plus millions of other Americans.
Obviously in manic times such as these those
blind can easily lead the blind. Just last week
when confronted by a blatant display of our
President's hidden agenda - corporate leaders
resigned from his advisory boards en masse.
Yet only one member of President Trump's
evangelical advisory enclave did just that. As
Reverend Jerry Falwell Junior defended our
President's myopic delusions. Sadly piety can
often fuel hatred and bigotry. Thus one might
ask where God is in all of this. Pray tell why
we shouldn't supremely rise to the occasion
against bigotry and unbridled blind ambition?
Often we can't see the forest for the trees. For
the first half of my life I purposefully limited
my world view in order to conform to other's
expectations. Good intentions aside, the end
result was a realization that it's impossible to
be someone or something you're not. Now we
live in a world where it appears that freedom
and equality have finally usurped prejudice
and isolation. Sadly recent events reopened
many of our eyes to the fact that some of our
fellow Americans do not share that vision.
So was all of the progress we've made over
the past few years simply smoke and mirrors?
