A Future on This Planet

Dearest Rachel –

This isn’t exactly breaking news, as far as today or yesterday goes; it’s been gradually getting to this point over time (albeit a relatively brief period of time). But I submit it to you as further proof of Dad’s improvement with regards to his health; when I’m visiting him, he likes to discuss news and politics with me.

You’ll note that I generally make a deliberate effort to eschew talking about things like that with you – and even now, I’m going to try and avoid actually mentioning names and specific positions as much as I can – because, from the opposite side of that great chasm between life and afterlife where you now reside, all that stuff is utterly irrelevant. What difference does it make to a dead person as to who currently considers themselves – to say nothing of those trying to take his place as – the leader of this nation, and thus, supposedly, of the “free world”? It’s as meaningless a title and position as that of whoever was Roman Caesar at such-and-such a date – and anyone who’s had a history class knows how boring and unimportant such names and dates felt when we were made to learn them. But the fact that Dad is willing, and even eager, to discuss such stuff is proof that, as far as he’s concerned, he still has a future on this planet, and he might as well concern himself with the nation’s – and by extension, the planet’s – future.

To be sure, the fact that this is an election year puts politics rather front and center in the news cycle. The possibility of change in our country’s direction – even if it means a ‘change’ back to the way it was previously run, as for the first time in nearly a century and a half, it looks like we will be dealing with a returning president as a candidate – is always a point of interest (unless, like you, it no longer matters). And so, this is the sort of thing he and I talk about in the hours we spend together, particularly over the past couple of weeks. Up until this past week, this required me to pay a little closer attention to the news, since he would ask me about it once I settled in at his bedside, and I would try to give a condensed summary of the information I had absorbed for his sake to serve as talking points. However, just recently, he has been able to pay sufficient attention as to turn on the television in his room (as well as check his own newsfeed on his phone), and get the news for himself, at which point we are now finding ourselves discussing the stories of the day from the slightly different perspectives that our respective feeds lead us toward.

Note that, while I say that we have different perspectives on the news – and we debate those perspectives between ourselves – we don’t really differ by all that much, in the grand scheme of things. We both have a fairly conservative outlook on “how things ought to be,” no doubt influenced by our own faith-based upbringing (the liberal, or shall I say leftist, ruling party seems to want very little to do with people of faith, seeing them as “deplorable” “bitter clingers,” to quote several of their leaders of recent past. Well, if they don’t want our vote, I guess that’s their loss – although when the current president claims that we are “extremists” who “will need F-16s” to oppose him, that level of rhetoric is concerning, to say the least). Even in the current ongoing primaries, the two of us both favored the same candidate for the opposition party, although our preference has been rendered moot by the fact that he has since dropped out of contention; it’s tough to run against a man who is still considered by many to be the de facto incumbent. The fact that said ‘incumbent’ appears to be unfairly maligned and targeted by the ruling opposition party only increases his stature among the party faithful, rendering a challenge to him that much more difficult.

Of course, as the saying goes, “politics ain’t beanbag,” so there will always be a fair amount of maligning those of the opposite party. But this particular election season has taken that to what feels like a whole new level, despite the fact that it also seems like more of the same (because, in effect, it is, since we’re running the same two guys as the last time). The past – and potentially future – president is posited as a ‘threat to democracy,’ much as his followers are considered to be dangerous ‘extremists’ by the current administration (which seems odd, as we have a unique opportunity to know how he will govern, as he did before, and democracy somehow survived his administration). Likewise, there are those who claim that the nation can’t survive four more years of the current administration and its policies. Basically, no matter who you talk to, and what political color they wear, if the other guy gets in, they see no future for this country.

You might recall my amusement at such hyperbolic language back in the day. Even back in college, I often suggested that we would all be better off if we all had the option to vote for “none of the above,” and leave various government positions empty; if nothing else, the government could at least save money on salaries, since it seemed to otherwise refuse to ease up on excessive spending. Back then, of course, I was often of the opinion of “what could happen in four years, anyway?”

For perspective on that particular question, allow me to remind you that you’ve only been gone for a little more than three years. So at this point, I know now – although, to be fair, few of those changes have anything to do with politics.

But this is where we are, where we’re being told that if this guy or that guy (yes, there’s still a woman in the race, and it looks for the moment that she will persist in the primaries as long as she has financial backing – although that begs the question as to who would throw money away on a clearly losing proposition – but she’s been losing by double digit percentages just like everyone else, and has no clear road to the nomination) wins in November, it’s all over for us. Whoever loses will be rounded up and eliminated, one way or another. It’s certainly grist for the discussion mill between Dad and I, if for no other reason that we think that’s nonsense; we have life, and therefore we have hope.

Besides, although we don’t know what the future holds (although perhaps you do – which admittedly doesn’t help us much), we know Who holds the future. For now, that must be good enough for us.

Still, if you’d keep an eye on us, honey, we’d appreciate it. And wish us luck – we’re going to need it.