Well I'll be Damned

From what I've seen the Iraqui elections went off much better than I thought they would. Much better. It's not important that I was wrong, but I'm honestly glad that it was so successful. Some of the stories I saw on CNN were touching, and all those people waving and showing off their blue fingers really got to me.

I take a lot of things for granted.

I'm a little upset about Sen Kennedy's reaction, which struck me as sour grapes. His "well, okay, the election went fine but it's the next step that's important" struck me as churlish (or is that childish? I'm not even sure what churlish means, but I like the sound of it). I shouldn't be surprised, though. The Republicans never can say a good word about the Democrats, and it looks like that runs both ways.

I remember that from my last workplace, too. One of the more distressing things there was the insistant emphasis on competition. We absolutely, positively, had to be a "fast follower," near the "bleeding edge" of everything that was going on or else we'd be doomed. Well, there's much more power in Washington and other nation's capitals than I ever saw in my silly jobs, but the same mentality runs through them all. We *must* be right, and our opposition *must* be wrong.

I pretty much hate that. While I find Bush and his administration arrogant, I have to admit they pulled this one off, and it looks as if many people are happy about it. I don't approve of the means, but the end wasn't the disaster I'd expected.

Still, I'm glad not to be associated with either party. Their insistance on holding power sickens me.


Reading Carver's instructions for writing. Even knowing now, as we do, that much of his early work was mostly the work of his editor, he has some sound advice. I'm encouraged, too, by seeing so many of the same ideas, and I greet them as old friends. I rather enjoy that, believing that if I hear the same thing from many people it's much more likely to be true than if I hear it from a single person.

Also, I'm seeing the basics, now, from a different vantage point, a little elevated (I hope). It's the nature of experience, I think, seeing things again after having had more experiences, and being able to make a larger, less specific, sense of them.

Writing must be true. Words matter. It's not the idea, even the meaning or thrust of the sentence, that's as important as how that thougth is presented. Lightening and lightening bugs, worrying about semi-colons.