The Widdershins

What a week! The gut wrenching anniversary of 9/11 always does a number on my psyche. I’m not sure I have ever mentioned it, but within 36 hours of the original 9/11, a State Fair winning ribbon of shingles came for a nice, long 6 weeks visit to my temple shanty of a body.

The wrongheaded decisions in the aftermath of 9/11 caused the President this week, now thirteen years later, to reluctantly speak to the nation about terrorism. To everyone’s surprise, the terrorism he was talking about wasn’t in the NFL.

It seems the all too sad realities of domestic violence only become a national topic of conversation when there’s a video of the actual roundhouse punch. I guess we can delude ourselves into believing a woman being dragged out of an elevator like a lifeless sack of flour is the victim of a freak Muzak overdose — unless and until we see the actual haymaker delivered by her soon-to-be husband.

It’s been nice not having the Congress around for five weeks or so. As good Congress critters should, I’m sure they’ve been diligently studying social policy and science especially the Old Testament parts. For those whose expertise is in foreign policy, I’m sure they have been emailing a certain Nigerian Prince about his current financial liquidity problems.

With Congress coming back to D.C., I find myself wanting to escape to the movies, but good movies this summer have been as rare as hen’s teeth. The two biggest movies of the summer have been Guardians of the Galaxy, a movie about a gang of misfits thrown together sorta like the Tea Party caucus, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Mitch McConnell, the Early Years.

What has been somewhat amazing is that the end of life as we know it didn’t happen this summer. Remember, Obamacare was supposed to herald the end times — pestilence-ridden streets where insurance CEOs had to scrape by on meager eight-figure salaries. Then there was the southern invasion of what Rep. Steve King termed, an influx of cantaloupe-calved 8 and 9 year olds. Luckily, quick thinking Homeland Security professionals had plenty DVDs of Mitch McConnell, the Early Years to assuage these pint-sized invaders.

Putin was a problem this summer, but that is to be expected when you have a megalomaniac who would be denied a quarter pounder based upon shirt requirements. One positive this summer, Kim Jong Dumb’Un has been relatively quiet — I guess killing your uncle gives one pause to reflect.

There was bad news and then good news associated with the African outbreak of the Ebola virus. The bad news was there was an outbreak of the Ebola virus. The good news is there seems to be some new type of medication that might be able to help or at least it looks that way. The medicine is fabricated through the genetic altering of tobacco. I’m sure the tobacco companies are already test-marketing Joe Camel vs. the Mozambique Man.

So all in all, this summer has been one big “meh” — nothing great, nothing so disastrous that it didn’t have the potential for something positive. Sadly, we lost two “greats” this summer — Robin Williams and Joan Rivers. Having grown up with them, I feel as if I somehow knew them and so their passing seems to hurt more than other celebrities.

Last Tuesday I had the sentence in my E I E I, Oh… post, “Unfortunately, the innocence of childhood is not a chronic condition and likewise, the opportunity for twilight atonement is a fast-passing blur of missed fortunes.” I was kinda proud of that sentence until my lifelong best friend gently, as only as best friend can, told me, “That sentence sucks!”

What I was trying to say was this: It’s too bad maturity eats away at our innocence because there’s never enough time to right our inevitable wrongs. The key is what we do in between those two milestones.

So for your weekend viewing pleasure, I leave you with a couple of examples from the greats we lost this summer. One who never lost his child-like innocence and the other one, who never seemed to regret.

Have a great weekend.