“You only lose what you cling to.” - Anonymous

 From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst 

3 April 

Impermanence clings doggedly to the coattails of life. What I fondly assumed was “this” melds into “that” before my very eyes. The President [ANY President!] pays dearly for his office. Potomac Fever will cost years, and miles, and dollars, and maybe even spouse and children. He/she will have faced, more than once, the following ethical dilemma: “to do the good I know the country needs I must first win the Presidency, and that may require massaging rock-solid principles so that [nudge-nudge, wink-wink] I don’t actually inconvenience my big donors. It may require the unfortunate need to throw a long-time associate or two under the bus” [this last is, surprisingly, a broad category!]. And when he/she has laid all that on the altar of the bitch goddess Success, when he/she has put together just the right program of substance and shadow bought by the American body politic he/she will have 18 months, tops, to translate all that goodness into reality. Because by that first mid-term election the following phrase will begin nipping at the President’s heels with greater and greater insistence: “Lame Duck.” And life goes on, like a clock ticking calmly, relentlessly, in a thunderstorm – ticking to his/her demise. 

Ain’t life a bitch!