COMMON MISTAKES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS, OR POOR JUDGEMENT

Common mistakes are the easiest to fix: do this instead of that.

All good.

Unless it’s a clue to a greater problem.

I misunderstood The Great Gatsby the first time I read it.

The same with the second time.

From high school to college English, I did not see what it was about.

Starcrossed lovers? A failed reunion? “Gonnections?

After some personal growth, at least that’s what I called it, it came to me. Actually, it was after the most recent movie adaptation it came to me.

I re-read F. Scott’s most famous book with an eye out for PTSD triggers.

Then it finally made the most sense. It was written after WWI, about a WWI veteran. How did I miss that for so long?

Common Mistakes On Authority: O. J. Simpson

I remember the O. J. Simpson trial. The image that comes to mind most is the slow police chase in the white Bronco.

But my memory is more centered on when it happened, which was during the years Michael Jordan played baseball and the Houston Rockets went back to back in the NBA.

How is this memory possible? Because they cut away from a game for breaking Bronco news.

During the Simpson trial I saw a guy named Mark Fuhrman testify. He looked like a central casting Hollywood version of an LA detective. I didn’t know anything about him or his past, just that he looked like a guy in charge.

After hearing more about him, I had second thoughts. Then he moved to Northern Idaho.

People make common mistakes on first impressions. Mine was seeing a slick cop on camera doing his job like a movie star, not a questionable character in his own right.

High Authorities Make Common Mistakes

How much grace do we owe those who make the laws and rules we abide by?

I got a speeding ticket on a motorcycle when I was sixteen. Officer Friendly clocked me cruising Sherman on a Honda street 100, a real racer.

Feeling innocent, I went to court and presented an ironclad case. And was still found guilty.

So I paid the fine with my bitter earnings instead of buying a nice present for my high school girlfriend.

A couple of weeks later I was out with friends in the restaurant at Pony Village Motor Lodge. It was around ten o’clock on a weekend and we had a table.

A couple in a booth were arguing and struggling. The woman faced me and I saw the back of the man’s head. She was reaching across the table and grabbing at the him.

A fan of drunken conflict, I stood for a look, pretending to head for the bathroom.

My traffic judge was the man at the table, with his wife. She was trying to pull the bottle of ketchup out of his hands while he tried to drink it.

It was my first brush with real life contradiction.

With Great Authority Comes Great Responsibility

Who has watched Mr. Trump speaking on covid19 and cheered his grasp of the situation?

From most views, his job is the highest authority in the land, but is he conducting himself with the sort of responsibility the job calls for?

This isn’t a blog famous for shit-talking elected officials, rat-fucking opponents, or calling names. That’s not my blog job; I leave that for partisan hacks.

Here, I keep it simple with two options:

RIGHT

OR

WRONG

Anyone in a position of authority who stands up to explain common mistakes and ways to fix them is doing their civic duty; the person who stands before an audience who expect answers and assurance and rolls out hours of everything but answers and reassurance, is doing something else.

When I see Mr. Trump continue his path of communication at the podium, I think of the North Bend judge drinking catsup in a public place.

Do I expect Mr. Trump to show up in this?

No, I don’t expect Mr. Trump to do his daily update-blame spewing-showmanship routine, in a ketchup suit.

But I never expected to see an American President as misguided and confused over the scope of the job they wanted so badly they put their real life on hold for four years.

Ever ask why anyone would want that job? Ever wonder why someone like Mr. Trump would agree to take his shot?

He’d been on the sidelines of public life from an electoral point of view. He never ran for office, according to most reports. Instead, he ran his real estate business. Then he agreed to a television show.

Why wasn’t that enough?

When an aging man of seventy three spends as much time and care grooming himself, checking his appearance, warming up his face, it shows one thing: he doesn’t like what he sees when he gets up in the morning.

Save all of the ‘lipstick on a pig’ snark, and the ‘shit sandwich’ opinion. No one lipsticks a pig, or eats a shit sandwich in real life.

But that doesn’t stop the impression that they might, and they might like it.