Two Roads

The Christmas tree is decorated.  The presents under the tree are mounting. We're in a flurry of cookie baking & decorating, wrapping presents and eating candy canes.

Meanwhile, Julian Assange has his head in the gallows, so to speak.  With this smear on Assange for sexual misconduct, The Masses run the risk of assuming Wikileaks is Assange's own personal project and not bother to take a moment to understand the gravity of what Wikileaks is and what is at stake by attacking it.

The internet really is amazing.  We can look up anything from a sugar cookie recipe to the exact coordinates of small islands in the South Pacific.  It goes beyond what exists in any given library.  It's a true democratic medium.  And Two Roads are diverging.  Which road will we choose?  Or more passively, which road might we allow to get chosen for us?  I hope we'll chose the first of these options.  Not just as Americans, but as people who live on planet Earth.  I mean, we all breathe the same air.  We all feel the same sun.  We all want what's best for our kids, etc.

Speaking of kids, my own four year old son is learning to write his name, the names of the other people in his family, and his numbers.  He walks around the house muttering to himself and I ask him what he's talking about.  He says "Three three's is nine, Mom."  And he goes about his counting of whatever is in front of him. Frankly, it does remind me a bit of Rainman, but I am proud of his commitment, his hunger and willingness to practice something until he reaches mastery.

When I was a bit older than he is, I had just moved to the Mendocino Coast and was getting ready to go to a Kindergarten Interview.  Beforehand, I was quietly nervous as always and I said, "But Dad, what if they ask me about my triangles?"  Apparently I got rectangles and triangles confused sometimes and was terrified I would crack under the pressure of the Interview and blow my chances at Kindergarten.  Ah, childhood.

As for Assange, we'll have to see how it all unfolds.  But bare in mind, his being painted as a demon is to distract us from the fact that Wikileaks has divulged lots of secrets from behind a curtain I had previously assumed was a wall.  Let's hope it remains a curtain.