Understanding the inputs

I’ve had an odd combination of inputs of late.

My mother-in-law passed away. She was a good person and an important contributor to the life and lives of our little clan. She was a teacher to our daughters, helping them understand much more than how to crochet or reduce cherries for pie filling or make caplets. She was the center of her family and even in dying did much to pull her children together. We miss her and will continue to miss her.

The horror that is national politics is on all our minds today. And it goes beyond Trump and Clinton, although each of them in their own way represents the worst we have to offer in the realm of leadership. The worst aspect of our political torment is the enforced realization that the evil that inflicted us before the Sixties remains rampant. It would be simple to blame the hateful rhetoric on the likes of Cruz and Ryan and Limbaugh. But rhetoric requires an audience and the rabble standing with Trump are not of Trump’s creation.

A free press - so necessary to the maintenance of an informed electorate - itself depends for its validity on both competence and positive intent. Both attributes seem sadly lacking in the ‘journalists’ of today. I’ve nothing against advocacy but when advocacy is disguised as information we all suffer. So I watch the political falderal and I’m at a loss to determine the proper course. Not because I can’t trust this candidate or that but more because I can’t trust much of the ‘information’ I’m receiving about any of them.

My daughters are both going through changes in their lives that will alter their futures and by extension, Mary’s and mine. No judgment, no good or bad. But the future will diverge from the past.

I’m getting older and while I’ve long since accepted mortality, I can’t as readily accept the end of my ability to contribute. So, do I work harder or faster or both? And can I work harder or faster or both?

The passing of Elie Wiesel has affected me more than I would have imagined. I’m re-reading Night to try to understand exactly why. A wonderful, crucial human being but why is his passing so viscerally important to me? I hope to figure that out because I suspect that in this case, knowledge might bring wisdom.

Friends are going through, well, stuff and I hope for them. So much, so sincerely do I hope for each and all of them.

As our ability to gather data expands exponentially, our ability to absorb and understand what the data mean is steadily diminished. But how do we choose which data to try to understand? How do we conduct the triage?

DO we even know what success would look like? Do any of us truly recall Original Position?

I don’t have answers. But I have inputs and I like to think I’m starting to understand the questions.

For now, that will have to be enough.