Trump is again deflecting, trying to get the country…all of it, not just his disciples, to focus on Obama, allowing Trump to swim in the delight of, “It’s Obama’s fault!” Other options for him have been, “Its Hillary’s fault” or even the generic, “It’s the Democrats!” He desperately seeks to take our focus off of this cursed pandemic that he has horribly mismanaged. Of course, Congressman Devin Nunes, one of Trump’s most insipid brown-nosers, immediately stepped to the plate and tried to lend a hand, accusing the Democrats of “hiding stuff” even as Trump and the GOP continue to be the poster boy for “hiding stuff.” Nunes gleams each time he aids and abets Trump, hoping Trump might toss him an, “Atta boy!”  or find a place on the ever-growing “pardon list” for his own political peccadillos.

“Awareness is all” said a bumper sticker of a good friend of mine.  Honest acknowledgement of misbehavior and mistakes is a fundamental part of the social contract that keeps society functioning.  Furthermore, lacking this quality can become comical when we egregiously violate this agreement  and appear oblivious to it.  I grimace at the many occasions when I have been in that position…and probably still am!

Awareness is a basic dimension of being human.  It allows us to join the human narrative, participating in a shared reality that is implicit in the aforementioned social contract. Having this quality requires a certain schism in the soul, an ability to “stand apart” from our self and be aware of the presence of that  whirl-i-gig in our soul that Trump, Nunes, et al are unaware of.  Without this quality I might even find myself, being a “chrome-dome”, obsessively criticizing and heaping contempt upon bald-headed men!

This brings to mind the Hans Christian Anderson story of kid who didn’t know any better than to declare that “the emperor has no clothes on.”  In this simple tale, the emperor was buck-naked but did not know it and lived in a community in which no one would point out to him.  And then that damn brat came along!

I’m glad to be one of the “brats” in this moment of history.