Our Beautiful Daughters

Sept 23 2011

Don’t over think this

I’ve said to myself

too many times to count.

Things are complicated enough.

Go ahead, trust your gut.

A little prayer

wouldn’t hurt.

And don’t be too proud

to learn

from the politicians  —

there’s a simple answer

to every problem,

so what if it doesn’t work.

Does this come from the gut

the heart

the soul?

When you just know,

when feeling is so utterly sure

you never second guess yourself?

Some people always go by feel.

They have the conviction, the passion

the rest of us lack.

Attractive, charismatic

we can’t help but believe

as well.

Just like falling in love

when I kept my doubts to myself.

If I’d given it some thought

I’d have stopped

at falling in like.

As it was, I fell hard,

the love of my life

who would quickly break my heart.

And the glorious leader

we wanted so much to believe,

despite his silly cowboy hats

the conspicuously dropped “g”s.

We were all his loyal followers,

until he made off

with our bank accounts,

our beautiful daughters.

A poem about the pitfalls of faith;  about people who prefer the easy route of feeling over the rigor of cold rational thought.

Although the poem hints at romantic love and a broken heart, it actually began with how much the current crop of Republican Presidential pretenders disgust and repulse me. People like Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry, who are clearly incapable of critical thinking; who repeatedly demonstrate such a breath-taking lack of self-awareness; who can be so blithely and unselfconsciously ignorant of basic facts, and don’t care if the facts don’t fit; who prefer bromides and slogans and ideology over thoughtfulness, openness, and nuance. I am gobsmacked by the smug preening confidence of these utter mental cretins, to sincerely believe they are even remotely capable of being President. (Don’t get me started on the Harper Conservatives!)

These are the leaders we get, and the leaders we deserve, because their simple solutions, their empty but handsome suits, make us feel good. Stephen Colbert’s TV persona constantly mocks this:  by proudly proclaiming he only goes by gut feeling; by flaunting his determined anti-intellectualism. The trouble is, Colbert’s flagrant parody isn’t very far off the real thing. Which utterly demoralizes me.

…On the other hand, comparing Rick Perry to a con-man cult leader and sexual predator was very satisfying (if egregiously unfair)!

Yeats, of course, comes to mind:   “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. ”