Witness to devastation or search for reassurance - which is it that pulls us to the sandy barrier between ocean and population after a battering storm?
For myself I must confess it's a little of both.
I'm always awed at the way nature can change miles of landscape with a single swipe of turbulent weather. There is an inability to comprehend how water can move hundreds of tons of sand in increments of sixty minutes. And just how does wind lift a piece of driftwood from the beach and drive it through the siding of a house a quarter mile away?
As intriguing as it is to see these things I want to see someplace else - not at the beach I visit. Yes I know every beach is somebody's beach but I want mine to be special. I want to know that when summer arrives the waters of high tide will stay where they belong - at the edge of the sand, not over it. I want to know that despite nature's temperament I still have my place of solace and rejuvenation.
Now if I could just get mother nature to see things my way.....
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
It's All About the Noise
Personally I think Donald Trump's "campaign" for the presidency has been a brilliant commentary on the state of what elections in the U.S. have become - noise.
Politicians talk to us constantly - they tell us they are sympathetic to a hefty listing of plights, they tell us what somebody else did wrong, and what America needs to do right (that's America in general - not the politician specifically). Ultimately it is rare that words match deeds. And so, to many an American, all of that talk is just background chatter -the kind of friendly bantering that takes place over drinks with your friends at the bar knowing all but the occasional gem of an idea will be forgotten come dawn.
Trump has brilliantly demonstrated that to catch the attention of America a politician has to be louder than the back chatter. A politician has to SHOUT - content doesn't matter, in fact the more ridiculous the content the longer the SHOUT echoes in the minds of Americans.
Presidential campaigns feed Americans information via TV, radio, print & electronic publications, Facebook, Twitter - it's like watching the perpetually running ticker at the stock exchange - a blur of data until something JUMPS OUT.
Trump has shown us that the way to JUMP OUT is to toss shiny baubles. Like fish we are lured to investigate - and then we're hooked. Hooked by the ludicrousness of the Donald Trump Traveling Circus. The audience grows and grows - people wanting to see just how crazy things will get.
The worrisome thing is that the Iowa Caucus should have shown us that deep down voters see the Trump campaign for the flim-flam that it is. Trump should have been the guy with 10 percent of the votes. Instead, he's hanging tough - Americans are fixated on the noise.
Politicians talk to us constantly - they tell us they are sympathetic to a hefty listing of plights, they tell us what somebody else did wrong, and what America needs to do right (that's America in general - not the politician specifically). Ultimately it is rare that words match deeds. And so, to many an American, all of that talk is just background chatter -the kind of friendly bantering that takes place over drinks with your friends at the bar knowing all but the occasional gem of an idea will be forgotten come dawn.
Trump has brilliantly demonstrated that to catch the attention of America a politician has to be louder than the back chatter. A politician has to SHOUT - content doesn't matter, in fact the more ridiculous the content the longer the SHOUT echoes in the minds of Americans.
Presidential campaigns feed Americans information via TV, radio, print & electronic publications, Facebook, Twitter - it's like watching the perpetually running ticker at the stock exchange - a blur of data until something JUMPS OUT.
Trump has shown us that the way to JUMP OUT is to toss shiny baubles. Like fish we are lured to investigate - and then we're hooked. Hooked by the ludicrousness of the Donald Trump Traveling Circus. The audience grows and grows - people wanting to see just how crazy things will get.
The worrisome thing is that the Iowa Caucus should have shown us that deep down voters see the Trump campaign for the flim-flam that it is. Trump should have been the guy with 10 percent of the votes. Instead, he's hanging tough - Americans are fixated on the noise.
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