Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Catching Mackerel

Riddle me this one:

I'm out on a small boat on the ocean, catching mackerel.  It's amazing.  I put out multiple lines and the fish seem to just leap to the hooks.  Not content with taking the bait I offer, they latch on to each other, fish biting fish biting fish... long silvery strands of the wriggling, plump creatures that I haul into the boat.  I have an armful of them, big fish, bigger than your average mackerel, gleaming...

Sounds like a dream of abundance, right?  But wait...

Next thing I know, I'm in the water, holding on desperately to one of the fish that fills my arms. I'm mesmerized by the sudden appearance of a two-hulled speed boat, dashing toward me through the waves.  I know that I need to swim, and fast, to the left or right, to avoid being crushed by the speeding boat, but I just can't move.  It's like one of those dream-moments when you know you have to escape but your legs won't carry you.  I'm stuck there, treading water stupidly, trapped by my own inability to move, about to be run down between the hulls and smashed to pieces by the huge engines that propel them...

I wake, fortunately, before the ultimate fatal moment.  

So, riddle me that one.  

Here's what I think.  I see this as a dream provoked by the anxiety of the economic crisis.  The illusion of abundance at one moment, approaching disaster at the next.    

And, on this topic, I might add how sad and angry I am that this new, young, visionary president should be distracted from the great promise that he brought with him to the White House by a crisis not of his own making, and one that will consume every last ounce of his credibility to resolve.    

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