Trampled by Babe the blue ox

At loose ends… I am suddenly adrift. There’s no immediate urgency to find a new project, but my current work has suddenly stopped… I know I should enjoy the downtime, the freedom, the sudden rush of patient but niggling fantasies, but part of me also feels like I should be immediately lining up “the next thing.” This would mean dropping a line to many people in my network of friends and colleagues to find out what’s up, get advice, hear about potential opportunities or interesting endeavors.
Weirdly I thought last night about getting into government. As just after 9/11 when I felt called up not to military action but to journalism (getting at the truth) and politics (trying to change the direction of things), my current despair about our political rhetoric (is that the right word for a narrow permitted range of ideas?) and our tired solutions to the conundrums of our day.
And fuck those people who compare any doubt about anything my country right or wrong decides to do with or without my input, who compare that to treason or favoring our enemies? How dare they? It is precisely because I am so amazed by American’s incredible competence in so many areas (science, technology, coordinated military action, entertainment/media production, medicine, and so on) that I fear this sometimes masks the mix of arrogance, excellence, blind spots, and unintended consequences that characterize the lumbering actions of our noble Bunyanesque nation on the world stage.
More on this after today’s important household errand…