My father told me that story last night. He’s concerned in my behalf. There’s a LOT of deceitfulness and corruption in the realm of politics. It’s like being in a warehouse full of baskets. Some of the apples are rotted through and through. Some of them haven’t. Some people have become immune to a lot of it over time, so they have an attitude of “apples rot”. I don’t.

I wish you could have heard him, because in some ways, even though he came down pretty hard on me, the way he presented the “farmer” analogy was rather comical. He says that there I am, and I don’t want the remainder of the crop to rot away. So when I look at a basket of apples that aren’t rotten yet, and I get this sense of “bad apple in this basket”, I’m not willing just accept the whole “looks all right to me” scenario. So I’ll start digging through the apples one by one. “Nope, not this one. Nope, not this one either.” And on and on it goes until I find the apple I’m looking for. (Oh, and what you said about gratifying…yeah, sometimes it is)

Makes not a lick of sense to other people, so it drives them nuts. But to me, it does.

Anyway, he said that I’m definitely displaying a degree of vigilance that is needed in a lot of ways, but that I’m also becoming overly-responsible about “protecting and preserving what remains of the crop”. (Well, it’s kind of like what you said about the fireman…someone else might say “houses burn”; a fireman looks for ways to put out the fire. That’s part of his/her role.)

My father’s concern is that I’m investing a great deal of time and effort in “digging through baskets of apples” when I should be focused more on a few other things. (It’s politics, you know? So much deceitfulness, so little time) And he doesn’t see that as being positive in my life right now. So, he came down harder on me than he usually does. Told me in no uncertain terms that if I can’t keep from being overly-responsible about it, then I just needed to get away from politics entirely.

I don’t mean to drive other people nuts with it, though. I realize that it can, and I wanted to apologize on that much at least.

Thanks for acknowledging the apology and the diary, funwithknives.

But these are not normal times ,there is bunches at stake,and the ‘life goes on’ crowd can get really irritating, yah’-know,.. ‘eh?

So when you witness obliviousness in some form or another, {as-in a fireman seeing a fire} sometimes you just gotta’ turn on the water.

Birds gotta fly,fish gotta swim,e t c. ………..

But the questioning aspect you mention is noted, hereabouts. It is a smidge gratifying , at certain moments.