October, 2008

Dear Colin Powell-

I forgive you for standing in front of the United Nations, before a shamefully covered “Guernica”, and lying about WMD and advocating a badwrong war. You spent pretty much all your capital of integrity on that move. I was disheartened by it and lost faith in you.

I forgive you even though we’re still being battered by the consequences of that action, and none more than the military men and women of this country.

But see, now you get to go back into my “good guys” pile. Because you said what needed saying (that the face of America includes Muslims, and we’re a better nation for it), exactly when it needed saying. Thank you, from a Christian who happens not to believe Muslim is code for terrorism, evil, or the destruction of America. Long live our country. May it ever promote religious freedom, including the right to pursue no religion.

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My husband was gone to training last week. When he got back, he asked me how much TV the Princess Monkey Toes had watched in his absence.

“None,” I said. Then squinted at the TV, “Wait, maybe we watched some on Sunday night.” He’d left Sunday morning. I was just hedging, though. I don’t believe we actually watched any then, either.

“When you die, the first thing I’m selling is that damn TV,” I told him.

The funny thing is, I hadn’t even noticed we didn’t watch TV all week. TV enters my conscious mind only under pressure from other people, who turn it on or talk about it or tell me I’d love to see this or that. Left on my own, it’s not even part of my mental landscape. It’s not that I’m better than anyone for not watching TV. God knows I have a thousand other ways of wasting my time and I’m not nearly as productive as an absence of TV in my life should make me. It’s just peculiar how deep my non-interest goes. My husband watches TV without me, as does my kid. I never watch TV without one of them (except earlier in the year when I had pneumonia and was too sick to read).

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Lately, every time I hear the president say something, instead of getting all angry and tense like I used to, I react with surprise, almost laughter: this guy is still president? He still says stuff? People stop to listen and broadcast what he says? Really? It seems like a peculiar throwback and I feel indulgently amused, as if my dog just performed a trick without my asking him to and is waiting hopefully for his treat.

I can’t be the only one who reacts this way.

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