Thinking in segments

I am never certain if it is me or if it is the speed of events which each in its own fashion steal my attention. Regardless, the end result is the same, some loosely connected thoughts.

I was listening to morning news and a medication commercial promised to relieve the symptoms of manic-depression if I happened to have that affliction. Which I don’t. Self-diagnosis. I’m normal. At least, I’m certain I would be if I had a clue what normal is.

Well, I suppose after so many years in the profession, I do have a clue. First, I know normalcy is a myth, it doesn’t exist. The real question is, “Can I do what I need to do where I need to do it?”

But just because it doesn’t exist does not prevent us from judging it. We are prone to judge normalcy in ourselves and in others.

How do we judge? Simple. I’m normal and the more like me you are, the more normal you are. It truly is a simple logic, “The more you agree with me, the more normal you are.”

Self-delusion creates a palatable illusion.

Which brings to another thing I heard on the morning news. Washington, D.C. Seems a tiny group of congressmen and congresswomen judged their wishes and desires as more important that of the majority. They are right and everyone else is wrong. This degree of self-admiration is often affiliated with clinical narcissism. To believe you’re right and the large majority of the world is wrong does require considerable narcissism. If it interferes with the person’s ability to interact successfully with others, it is clinical. I might be wrong, but I don’t think those folks are playing well with others.

Then, came border walls and immigrants. I shared with a good friend that I thought an answer might be: Make Mexico Great Again. Maybe Mexico hasn’t been great since the Aztecs but again is again.

Mexico is well located between South American, Central America and the United States. Now, just suppose, immigrants arrived in Mexico and found a reasonably prosperous, safe country where the people all spoke Spanish. The journey has been long, hard and dangerous. Why move on?

My friend, retired after a long and successful career with the Tulsa Police Department, brought to my attention that the Cartels were well-organized, well-armed and ill-intended. I told him I was not worried about that as I was just going create a Department of Cartel Management and put him in charge.

It just seem to me that the best solution to our immigrant issues is to make our neighbor to the south more desirable.

OU beat Texas with a Championship Drive. There is little better in football than a group of players, in the trenches, engineering a Championship Drive. Character is truly revealed.

Now, I rolled out this morning to hear Hamas had “Pearl Harbored” Israel – again. Israel will retaliate – again.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. — Albert Einstein

Hal McBride writes a column, Just Thinkin’, published each week.