It was cold, cold and wild; teeth chattering, frozen water cold. I don’t care much for the cold. Don’t care much for the hot either, but this kind of bone-brittle cold makes my head hurt. Unfortunately, I had walked my way into a serious existential dilemma. (as if there’s any other kind) I was in Michigan, having stumbled into a town where a Presidential debate happened to be. The town was loud and ambulatory. The streets were loud with voices and tires; the sky was loud with rotors and winds. Not important, or rich, enough to stake a place at the debate, I found myself in an after-debate party…though there wasn’t much partying. Lots of talking and nodding and sipping wine. Typical political bullshit. “Oh, well I thought Senator X——‘s commentary on the bankrupt state of the economy was a refreshing and honest analysis of the current administration’s incompetence.” “Well, I thought Governor Z——‘s experience and directness with threatening foreign affairs was an obvious indictment of his opponent’s callowness.” The bullshit is that each person sees his or her candidate as the winner of the debate. It doesn’t take long for this sort of myopia to send me to the nearest door to walk about and breathe in the air and the scents and the sounds. But damn it’s a wild winter outside.

9/27/2008