Mirrors are Tools of Vanity

When the forest looks bleak and drab, something obviously is amiss with the world. The problem, of course, is that there is no sure way to determine what causes that hazy, muddy, muted dimness. It is the same sky, the same trunks and branches and leaves, and the same air surrounding the trees. But in the midst of that sameness there exists a darkness that is immune to light. There is no reflection; instead, light is absorbed in some way. As if it is eaten; consumed by the very objects it attempts to illuminate. Illumination fails to illuminate.

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Depression. Anxiety. Whatever. Perhaps a quadruple dose of Zoloft would help. Or a couple of 30 mg gummies. Or getting away from everything and everyone for a week or four, spending the entire time in dreamless sleep. Maybe a medically-induced coma. A mood reset; something to overcome the dull, grey, overwhelming dreariness.

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I barely have enough mental energy to record my reactions to last night’s Republican debate, but I will do what I can:

• Nikki Haley outperformed everyone else on stage
• Ron DeSantis was dull and artificial
• Asa Hutchinson’s listlessness put the nail in the coffin of his candidacy
• Vivek Ramaswamy’s arrogant showmanship merits deep disdain
• Chris Christie has no chance of competing against the felon
• Mike Pence belongs in an evangelical religious cage
• Doug Burgum does not matter
• Tim Scott matters only slightly more than Burgum

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Anger is energizing. The opposite of anger is depression, which is anger turned inward.

~ Gloria Steinem ~

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Mirrors are tools of vanity. I thought those words were original to me, but when I searched for them with Google, I found them buried in the website for a shul/synagogue in Miami, Florida. That was the only “hit” for the sentence. I wonder if there is any meaning in that coincidence; which would mean the discovery is not a coincidence at all, wouldn’t it? Meaning. There is no meaning in anything. Things and situation and circumstances just are. No causation, no correlation, no explanation. But those assertions may simply be the results of distemper. Once serenity returns, all will be well. Meaning will again exist in the real world.