Sunday, July 30, 2017

Aunt Mary Unloads

by Pa Rock
Proud Nephew

I have written about my wonderful Aunt Mary in this space on several occasions over the years.  Yesterday we had a wide-ranging telephone conversation that, as always, left me smiling.  Aunt Mary turned ninety-two earlier this week, and she will soon celebrate the birth of twin great-great-granddaughters.

Aunt Mary was born in the Midwest during the Coolidge administration, but by the time Truman was in the White House she was a resident of San Diego and having babies of her own.  She has been a resident of that beautiful seaside city ever since.

Almost all of my relatives who were in Aunt Mary's generation are gone now - and almost all of them were Republicans.  Aunt Mary was the happy exception.  During our conversation yesterday I resisted the temptation to bring up politics, so she eventually did it for me.  Aunt Mary, I quickly learned, is not a happy camper when it comes to Donald John Trump.

Her primary concern with America's new leader is his crudeness.  She feels that he goes out of his way to be impolite and to bully.  Then she turned to talk about Trump's new Communication's Director (Anthony Scaramucci) whose name she could not remember.  What she did remember, however, were the highlights of The Mooch's interview with Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker, and the stream of vulgarities and obscenities that he used in that conversation.  "Why Rocky," she lamented, "he used language that the media won't even print!"  She then went on to suggest that a good spanking might be in order, and I resisted the urge to explain to her that Scaramucci might just enjoy it!

Instead I went with, "Yes, the White House seems to be filling up with trash."

"Yes, trash.  That's exactly right!"  She agreed.

A few minutes later we were talking about Florida.  Aunt Mary told me that she had driven through the state years ago and found that it was too sultry.  I threw in my two cents worth that the state would soon be slipping underwater anyway, and Aunt Mary got fired up again.    "Yes," she declared.  "That's exactly right, but they (the Trump people) refuse to admit it."

And she is right about that - and about everything.  The office of President should maintain a certain level of dignity, regardless of the political agenda of the occupant of that office.  America should expect proper discourse from its leaders, and not a constant stream of locker room obscenities.  Science also should be recognized and accepted as a crucial part of life in the modern world.  Climate change is every bit as real as Twitter, and a far more crucial element in the survival of mankind than 140-character taunts will ever be.

Time is rushing forward, and it is well past time to quit worrying about our immediate comfort and start focusing instead on the needs of those great-great-granddaughters of Aunt Mary who are about to be born.  This world will be theirs in mere moments.

Aunt Mary realizes the fluidity of time.  She is a bright point of sanity in an ever-increasingly crazy world.  I treasure our friendship - and her wisdom.

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