I drive my 12 year old stepson to school every day and, for the most part, it is a quiet affair. Rarely are any words spoken during this fifteen minute ride.
To break the monotony of silence, sometimes I turn on the radio and listen to the latest codswallop issued by NPRopaganda, yet another publicly-funded station spewing nonsense by corporate shills.
I do, however, enjoy some of their brief segments, on the environment, travels by various people, and other such fascinating facets of what happens in the world.
But when it gets to politics, more specifically the machinations perpetrated by Washington and dispensed by media sycophants or, what some people aptly call the ‘presstitutes’, I have to sit there as I drive and emit a censorious chuckle or two at the sheer hubris and hypocrisy that gushes from pundits, about how the USA is doing so much good in the Ukraine, and that Mr. Putin is the personification of evil. (Do W., Rumsfeld, and Cheney ever come to mind?…)
Anyway, I digress. On this particular batch of bloviated blabber the gabble was about how President O-‘bomb’-a was upset about the stance of Russia, how the situation has become rather grave, and that “…no nation has the right to invade another country. There will be consequences if…” blah, blah, blah. Can you believe such utter lunacy?
Um…does anyone remember Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the myriad of other countries where the US military presently occupies? Does anyone care that Amerika has over 1,000 military bases garrisoning our planet, and have a ring of bases surrounding Russia proper? Is there any possible connection to the vast wealth of fossil fuels lying beneath the Black Sea basin and Washington’s interest in the area, fomenting unrest at every opportunity to disrupt and spread lies and paint Putin as the devil incarnate?
Well, after listening to so much drivel I had to turn the radio off. Mind you, I said all this to my stepson in a fashion that a 12 year old can reasonably grasp. I asked him, ‘So what do you think about the situation between Russia and the US?’ A reasonable query, I imagined, as I thought they must keep up with current events in school (albeit, on a favorable US slant.)
He paused for a minute and said, verbatim: “Did you know that if you close your eyes and try a spoonful of chocolate ice cream, and then try some vanilla ice cream, that you can’t taste the difference?”
His reply to my Ukrainian conundrum caught me off guard. It was my turn to pause and digest what he just said.
“No, no I didn’t know that. That’s pretty cool,” I said.
I just had to smile.
His response was…perfect.
With all the death and destruction and disease and sadness in the world, why not for once just stop and contemplate ice cream?
The rest of the ride was met with silence once again. As he got out, lugging his 80-pound backpack with him, I said my perfunctory “Have a good day!” and he responded with his usual monosyllabic one word rejoinder: “Bye” .
My solitary ride home was lighter though, having rid my mind of the idiocy dictated by monsters of mayhem in pinstripes. A smile still lingered as I thought about the innocence of my stepson on the verge of adolescence.
When I arrived home , even though it was only 7:20 am, I had a dollop of chocolate ice cream. And then I jotted down a quick note, a reminder to buy some vanilla ice cream after work.
©Paul Grignon, 2014-All Rights Reserved.
Paul Grignon 