Fool Them

Weakness and Strongness

The computer put a red line under "strongness" in my subtitle.  Too bad, I like it, so I'm keeping that "non-word." Call it my invention, if you will.  You cannot imagine the emotions that welled up in me last night watching an old 1980s movie called "St. Elmo's Fire."  It's a movie that I never saw at the time that it first ran, circa 1985, but kind of watched it since then, off and on, after it aged 20 years or so, and began seeing it on television from time to time.  Last night, I came upon it about 15 minutes from the start, and watched it more closely than ever until the end.  I love the theme music, though non-lyrical, it's part of the magic of the movie, I believe.  In the 80s, I was just slightly older than the main characters in the movie.  It really brought back a lot of memories from that decade, particularly a period from the years 1980 - 1981, and it's amazing how watching a movie can trigger such strong emotions.

After the movie was over, I did nothing but think about that decade, the 80s.  It's a foolhardy exercise, dwelling on old times and second-guessing everything you did or didn't do, and thinking about what you changed, or could have changed, but didn't.  Sometimes, however, life is about making split-second decisions, and those kind can be as important as any.  The choices you make, even when you don't have the luxury of time, can change your life forever.  It's too simple, I realize, framing life in the starkest of terms, but sometimes it seems like every decision we, as individuals, make can be either wise or unwise, weak or strong, bad or good, and we get to choose, whether we have a real long time to dwell on it, or a split-second, or more usually than not, something in between.  Personally, I believe, of the numerous choices we make in life, whether about something minor or grandiose, everybody eventually chooses across the board, both wise and unwise, but like math, it's the aggregate total, the preponderance of things, you might say, that makes up our character, our being.  So watching St. Elmo's Fire, yesterday, was great in one sense, but daunting in another, that which I can't even express, but really choosing not to, publicly. 

Emotion is something that I'm not comfortable with, of course, even if I happen to like whatever brings it on, because, among other things, it can make you ponder too much, and can stop productivity cold.  On the other hand, emotion can bring us, more speedily, with a tad of courage at least, to what's honorable in life, including whatever best traits our parents, guardians, and general teachers of life instilled in us at every stage of life.  Emotions often express our true selves, a kind of roadmap of our lives, for better or worst, but if we try to study them too long, they can be entrapping.

"Reliability" is suppose to be about politics, and believe it or not, this essay is about politics in a round about way, so as I often do, I entitled this essay before I wrote it out, not always knowing exactly what I am going to write, but I will say this, it was titled in the knowledge of knowing that we can fool those who think they know it all, like the outcome of elections before they are voted on, as if elections should be naturally predictable, so whether in politics or something else, fool them when you get the chance (strongness), and believe me, as watching the movie made me realize, chances are few and far between.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Congress, Washington 9th District (Revived Citizens Party)