Slow Burn

Spent a few days camping and time gazing into the campfire. Free from radio and TV. Free from the political BS. Time. Thinking. Feeling. Wondering.

Put huge hunk of oak on the fire figuring it would last a couple days. It did. And more. More fire gazing and wondering. Sometime the second day the fire had opened a tiny fissure through the heart of the oak. At first it was just the barest hint of smoke escaping. I barely noticed. Later the crack opened a bit more allowing a plume of smoke to escape the hot coals underneath. Then a tiny orange flame found an avenue which finally opened into a faster burn that consumed the oak from the inside out. In the end, the oak fell to the slow burn that quite quickly became a raging fire.

The United States is a bit like that solid oak. Built of solid values and solid people. Meant to last an eternity.

But, our nation and our society are in a slow burn that will, if not doused with our democratic values and the rule of law, consume us from the inside out.

Bush.

Illegal wiretapping.

Executive privilege.

Executive lies.

Secret meetings.

Cheney.

Incompetence.

Xenophobia.

Stolen elections.

Lobbyists.

Outsourcing.

Greed.

Hate.

Politics of division.

Unjustified war.

It is getting smokey. Time is short. We are the masters of our fate. We are the captains of our soul.