Happy First Day of Spring

It's a rather routine day for March here. Temperatures will be in the 40's with a brisk wind. All in all a fine first day of Spring. The forecast for the next two days isn't so hot, though. The weather forecasters think we could get 3-5 inches of snow from tonight through tomorrow night. Ah, but this is the first day of Spring. So Carpe that Diem!

I continue to feel better. The new medicine seems to be helping lift the depression. I got a lot of sleep this past weekend. We went to a state park and rented a cabin that has all of the amenities. Some of our state parks are quite rustic, but this one, Hueston Woods in southwest Ohio near the Indiana border, is what they call a resort park. That means it's not rustic at all. It was a perfect getaway weekend for me.

The only thing that I need now is a weekend or a week off by myself. I need to meditate and relax and be accountable to no one but myself. I don't give myself enough time to quietly sit and think or pray or listen to myself or Spirit. I keep myself too much distracted by the world around me.

Monday mornings after a three day weekend are tough for me to get reaclimated to work. I've looked over what's on my plate, and I feel that I'm in a good space with it. Of course, the project leader will hit me with all sorts of late changes and work, but that's just the way he is, and there's nothing I can do about it. I've prepared as best I can, and all I really need to do is keep my cool and be prepared to work late or over the weekend. These aren't my favorite kinds of managers, but they do exist, and one has to get along with them.

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I see everyone was busy marking the third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq over the weekend. Sorry I missed it. The US made a stupid mistake going into Iraq when we did, for the reasons we did, and the way we did. So far, we've won all the battles, and we're losing the strategic war. For me, that's deja vu all over again, as Yogi said. In that respect, it's just like Vietnam 35 years ago. Maybe even moreso than in Vietnam, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

I notice that the President and all of his men and women are out in force telling us that things are going better than the media reports them to be going, that the war is crucial to US survival, that in ten years we'll be able to look back and see all of the positive things we've accomplished from this invasion and occupation of Iraq, and that we did the right thing then and are doing the right thing now.

How lovely. I wonder if Bob McNamara is writing their material. (McNanara, for those too young to remember, was Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam buildup and heavy fighting. He later regretted almost all he did about Vietnam.)

In my perfect world, Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney, Tennant, and Rice would all be tried as war criminals. They led us into war under erroneous intelligence. They have overseen and approved "interrogation techniques" that are nothing short of torture. And they have failed both to deliver what they promised when they promised it, but they are getting a lot of people killed in the process simply to save face.

But in the real world, that won't happen. In the real world, US complacency and the impotence of the rest of the world will leave things to wend their merry way to whatever conclusion can be achieved. Eventually, probably before Bush's term in up, we'll declare victory and exit Vietnam...er Iraq, leaving behind a few advisors. Iraq will descend into chaos (yes, I'm sorry but it can, and will, get worse), the Middle East will continue churning. And the US, saddled by debts we can't pay because we've outsourced all of our manufacturing, will be selling off the US Navy to China to pay the interest on the US Treasury Bonds China holds. We have mortgaged our future for a mess of porridge that has gone cold and sticky.

It's no less that we deserve. The initial election of Bush was done in ignorance of how the world would change on 9/11/01. The re-election of the President was criminal neglect by the American people. We will eventually pay the price while blaming the rest of the world for picking on us.

Happy first day of Spring, everybody!