Strange enough, or at least contrary to what most folks would feel about the matter- the seasonally based human contrived ‘earlier’ setting of the sun is working out. For at least this here thought experiment, on this here day, being that it means the feeling of evening happens earlier. Can start earlier without feeling too much a liar. Being that I strive for honesty, in this and as many other places as I can manage. But striving for doesn’t mean we always get there, does it?

But what’s the line from that song I like? ‘Just because it’s honest, that doesn’t make it true?’

It was something like that, at least. Just ask me if you want to know the tune. Might just be a turn of phrase that appeals to me, but enough of the idea strikes me to mention it here. Ideas of honesty and truth being similar and separate, now, that’s a thought.

I suppose that all comes down to the perspective.

Honesty is a people thing. Either from within yourself or projected from somewhere without- honesty has to do with people and their varied interactions. And their beliefs. Feelings and perspectives, and the sort. Being honest with yourself, being honest with others- somehow this can fall short of that bigger idea of truth, don’t you think?

See, truth means something more universal, right?

Something so massive that it might be forever beyond the comprehension of any human mind, no matter how powerful, never mind the one belonging to your charming but regularly befuddled narrator. Wondering about because I may never have the capacity to understand much of anything. Understanding the truth of it all would cease the need for wondering afterward, I’d reckon.

Yet, within that there isn’t a doubt of the existence of something we attempt to encapsulate into the word truth. Purpose, destiny, and the like can get wrapped up in that idea contained in a single word- but none of them seem to be as all encompassing. And the itch, the desire to keep getting at or at least closer to this inexplicable phantom named truth- well that much is as real as anything ever been conjured, as far as I’m concerned. That meaning both the things going on both outside, and inside of my skull.

I’d imagine you might be wondering whether the elephant in the room might get discussed. Tomorrow being election day for ‘the leader of the free world’- which is something that should be taken seriously, whether we currently are or not. But I refuse. Just go out and do your duty, that right that folks fought and died for, believing, quite correctly, that people together can stand up to oppressions foisted by powerful others. Maybe not immediately, or perfectly, but always eventually.

But I grow weary of the short-sightedness folks have regarding western politics, this recent bout particularly so. And if you were about to accuse the side of the spectrum opposite your own of such behavior while excusing your own, don’t. It is that kind of shit that got us here. We focus, or are focused, on matters fickle or barely scrapping the surface of the existential issues we actually face. Not meaning in regard to you personally, or your friends or close family. Or your town, or state, or some slightly larger regional division. We face issues that have and will have tremendous impact on the survival of this species as a whole, which is for certain not a guaranteed thing to keep on at our current rates of behavior.

I don’t like to think in midterms and executive election cycles, nor should the folks who end up aspiring to and being in such positions. We should think in decades. In centuries. In millennia, if we were anywhere near our damn potential. On how to fit on this world, and what the world can do to us if our hubris were to continue.

It hasn’t rained at my home in weeks, not really. It has made for some pretty pictures and accomplished yardwork days. Otherwise, it is a terrifying prospect. We are at the mercy of nature, whatever the inspiration for her moods and changes. Deny that it’s us, fine, wrong probably, but fine- but the changes are still coming, been coming since the end of the last ice age, more or less- and we are woefully underprepared for them. Most of us can’t get much further than our pocket computers to have something akin to an indentured servant bring us sustenance directly to our domiciles, so forgive me for my concern about our current ability for adapting to global changes. And that is just from the perspective of potential doom from within our atmosphere. Most of the rest of everything else in existence is going on the other side of our little nitrogen and oxygen picket fence. And from what little we have gathered about it, the place is fucking wild and we wouldn’t even register as a blip or a ripple within all that.

Well, at least not yet.

Despite a few grim seeming paragraphs, I don’t believe all is so doomed. I just like to keep myself aware that the possibility is there. I am rather sure, that if hardworking in the right directions, there is little that the human race cannot do over a long enough span of time, if anything. Both the accomplishment of individuals in each age and epoch, but more massively, the culmination that comes with a longer line of knowledge and insight and development. And one that is adaptive and ready to alter, while still holding with the correct sternness towards principle and structure to keep the whole thing moving forward with, more or less, correct footing. That, of course, if progress as a species is your kind of kink.

But either way, as far what business will be got for the good ol’ US of A tomorrow, and ultimately, the world, remember this. People are going with emotions on these decisions. It may be hard to see from where you are within whatever areas of political ideology you call home, but I assure you, for most of the average folks that is the case. Fear, anger, hope, melancholy- these are playing into the decisions we make, even when it comes to our ‘leaders’, if you can call them that. Because it is still the most of us that make the decisions, whether that be a gift or curse. I think it still a gift, though not an easy one without cost.

But whatever happens, I tell you this now- we must keep on. I don’t care how upset it makes you, we must keep going. There isn’t time, or energy, or resource left enough to waste on the being pissed about who sits in that fucking office. And I mean all of you, whatever your persuasion. We must keep moving, and we must do this together. As humans, even if begrudgingly. And we must choose that, or else the point of the whole thing gets lost.

Because, to get off that horrible topic before it gives me an ulcer- it is the connections that makes us humans so, well, human.

And this is the idea that I’d been more truthfully pondering throughout the day. Something about life being about the connections we make. Sure, within ourselves, but I think more importantly, with all those others that make up the rest of the population. The vague ones, you know, the sort that get encompassing in phrases like ‘my fellow Americans’, and the sort. But I think the real potency resides in the closer sorts of bonds. Comradery and intimacy, and the like.

Sometimes these are immediate. Profound almost instantaneously, and remaining so, in longevity. I’ve had these with friendships and the like, for sure. I’ve heard tell that some folks even find such a thing in romance, the lucky bastards.

There are other connections that don’t lead upfront with how important they end up being, but rather become a slow burn over time, igniting into something much more potent and furious by the end.

     There are some connections that stay, even if evolving. They weave in and out of the proximity of our hearts and minds, but never fade away. Others of those, despite the certainty of their impact, ultimately fade into a memory for the present to recall. Copenhagen comes to mind, when I think of that.

     Thinking of the folks that you meet that will inspire you. Or devastate. Or some even wielding the influence over both. But I believe that finding ways to try and see within the minds and hearts of those fellow humans we keep bumping into is a key to understanding ourselves, and the purpose of us hairless apes in general. It helps us grow closer to the inexplicable drawn of that idea of truth. Not saying that we ever attain it, not in a singular, simple, short biological life. But within all that, and the sharing of those connections, or at least the honest imitations of them, something grows within the human spirit. Something that may only exist to be passed on, for someone who comes after to find the better, more proper use for. Even if that only means keeping the essence of whatever idea or feeling alive for the next group to have their go at this whole truth business.

     Could be something as simple as dancing in a kitchen.

Like I was just doing, not long ago, while getting ready to cook dinner. Dancing like a fool, in the embarrassing sort of way you might see if you were a nearly pre-teen young lady with her mind wrapped about a book. The kind of dancing that when you look up and see your father doing, you cannot help but turn a smile, no matter how much you might initially try and fight it. The kind that will get you dancing too, whether you like it or not, although for sure, you will like it.

      The very kind that I might find myself doing at that young lady’s wedding someday. The kind I will carry out, between the tears of joy I will also likely be blubbering, were such a thing to occur. I’ll still be young enough to rip up a dance floor by then. Hell, I bet I can even still pull off a handstand or two by that point.

     Funny, isn’t it? It is if you ask me, and whether you were about to or not, I will tell you what’s so funny.

     This whole thing. This little writing experiment, you know, ‘*insert day of week* *insert time of day* thoughts’- this all started, a seeming million years ago, when I was being a sad, hungover undergrad, all dissatisfied with his successes. Heart all forlorn and simultaneously hopeful and hopeless.

     Now, it gets squeezed in sometime after dinner with my daughter, now damn near a decade old. Which is wild, because I’m not getting any older. Younger, in fact.

     But anyway.

     So, I sit, pondering life, knowing I am still a young enough man to have plenty of this living bit still to go. Granted we don’t destroy ourselves first, which is not impossible.

     But if she should carry on as long as I think she might, meaning this life- I wonder what other surprises might be in store. I know not all of them will be good, but some of them will be grand. Makes it all worthwhile, were you to ask me.