Oh, Where Did He Go?

I’m not sure just how it happened, or even exactly when it happened, but sometime in the last week or so I lost Donald Trump.

Oh, I think I saw his face a couple of times on television, and I vaguely remember him saying something was really, really good or horrible and awful. But I can’t tell you what the good thing was or what the bad thing was.

I remember a Naval carrier task force sailing in two directions at once, a move designed to fool anyone who doesn’t have access to satellite images - the kind that lets the United States know precisely where every ship in its navy is located and where they are all going.

I don’t think he mentioned any shootings or deportations. And I think he said the Democrats badly lost an election - really a kind of primary - in one Congressional district in Georgia.

Now, he said, it’s a battle between Hollywood and Main Street. Or something like that. And, he didn’t really say which side he was on. Maybe he meant Hollywood and Wall Street.

But, enough of those things. The point is that for a week, my world went on its merry way. I saw my grandkids, I played with my dogs and cats, I did some gardening. And, I didn’t even realize just how peaceful it was. I simply enjoyed being surrounded by normal the way someone enjoys sinking into a nice warm tub, or getting comfortable in an overstuffed chair.

I spent a week dealing with the coming change of seasons. And taking out the garbage and the recycling. I even wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper, pointing out how one very good story in it might have been even better. Made me feel like an educated consumer of news.

Then I walked past a TV screen while I was heating up some leftovers in the microwave, and I saw stern warnings from our Secretary of State about North Korea and what we might do to stop its nuclear ambitions.

And I thought once again of our toy soldier president, who thinks being Commander-in- Chief means you get everything you want. And I had one final thought - my wife has been watching re-runs of M.A.S.H. lately. 

It was a really good show.