So,
where did you go?
You disappeared rather abruptly. I suppose you could say that there was no
reason for you to hang around. After
all, the game ended, and you lost. And you will never get another shot. Maybe you needed to be alone, or at least
alone with your family, and friends, and associates. You never struck the rest
of us as being the type who would need to crawl into a cave and lick your
wounds, but then again, we did not know you.
We only saw that slick, hyper-confident veneer.
Beneath that mask, there might have been a
shattered expression – a silent scream. Perhaps, but we will never know.
Still,
it is odd not to hear at least a peep of your once ubiquitous voice. You had so
much to say, and you took every appropriate and inappropriate opportunity to
say it. Did you forever lose your voice the moment after the famous fat lady
sang? Did your opinions, whatever they
genuinely were, suddenly evaporate? The big issues and angry debates certainly
haven’t diminished. In fact, this new
civil war is as bitter and dangerous, and for some, as exciting and energizing
as it ever was.
So
much has been decided by your defeat, but even more remains in play. It goes on without you.
So,
why the silence? What happened to your
passion? Was any of it real, or was it
all just about closing the deal, and not really about changing the future? No need to answer. I think most of us, including your temporary,
hopeful friends of convenience, searched for your soul and came up empty.
And,
please do not lecture me that too many of us have a problem with ambition, and
that we begrudge you your wealth and success.
No one enters the biggest of all races in the free world without lofty
ambition and enormous ego. But, the
worthy ones also bring big ideas and deep conviction, and there lies the
difference between the margarine and the butter.
It is
unhealthy to eat a phony food that is made in a laboratory and is a molecule
away from being plastic. Take a stick of
margarine and a stick of butter and place both in the backyard of one of your
homes, in one of your many “home” states.
The squirrels and the raccoons will devour the butter and leave the
margarine untouched. Instinct protects them.
And, our
collective wisdom protects us. We are wiser now because you reminded us that
a false product is usually the least healthy choice.
Thank
you for that reminder. Thank God for
that reminder.
