mdyetmetaphor.com

Hmmm, why run for the office of Mayor if you have no qualifications for the job?

The Ontario Municipal Election will take place in a few weeks. Lawn signs are proliferating in various sizes and colours. Official debates are taking place as candidates vie to make their platform known and use the opportunity to take subtle swipes at their competition. All the usual characteristics of an election.

One thing that often perplexes me during municipal elections is the number of candidates running for the office of Mayor. Here in Hamilton there are 13 declared candidates. Realistically, only three of them have a chance of winning. The others are fringe candidates – some with a very limited public profile and others complete unknowns.

Our electoral system at the municipal level is very democratic. Anyone can throw their hat in the ring for the mayoralty race if they met the base level criteria: A resident of legal age, at least 25 declarations of endorsement, file the necessary paperwork and pay the associated fees.

I support the principles of the open system for running for public office. But I find it difficult to wrap my mind around the reasoning of these fringe candidates. Do they really believe they have even a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected?

There are a few typical paths to the Mayor’s chair. Get elected as a municipal councillor and serve at least one term. Serve as a provincial MPP or federal MP and leverage that profile to run for Mayor in your home city. Be a prominent, respected figure in the business community with recognized and transferrable skills.

The fringe candidates running for Mayor in Hamilton, as far as I can see, do not tick any of these boxes. I wonder if they can really be so ridiculously optimistic to believe they have a chance. And honestly, it irks me that they do not want to pay their dues as others have done.

It may be that some of them are running on principle alone. Striving to make a statement about the state of affairs in the city. But there are more effective channels to accomplish that end where their views would be more likely to be heard and have some effect.

I know that some of you reading this post will think: What is the problem? They have a right to stand for the office if they so desire. It does no harm for them to do so. Fair enough. I would never propose to interference with their rights. It just seems like an exercise in utter futility.

Running for the office of Mayor when you have no qualifications, and no hope of evening recording enough votes to be noticed, is akin to the attempt to push a beach ball under water. It takes exhausting, endless effort to keep the ball beneath the surface when it is inevitable that it will pop back up every time.

There are many ways to contribute to society based on the individual skills we each possess. Focusing your efforts on something that is never going to bring results feels like such a waste of time and effort.

~ Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Hamilton mayor · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Ontario Municipal ElectionNo Comments.

Hmmm, why is buying Band-Aids such a thought-intensive exercise?

I had band-aids on my shopping list this week. You would think that would be an easy, grab it on the way by item. Well, not so much. Aside from the different manufacturers, there was a bewildering array of choices. Here is what the iconic Band Aid brand itself offers.

BAND AID PRO HEAL

Help minor wounds heal better and prevent the appearance of scars with BAND-AID^® Brand Pro Heal Adhesive Bandages. These waterproof adhesive bandages have an advanced hydrocolloid gel pad for 60% better healing.

My Reaction: What the hell is a hydrocolloid gel pad. Something they found on the alien ship at Roswell? Do I really need that for a half-inch cut on my finger?

BAND AID HYDRO SEAL

Clinically shown to deliver 60 percent better healing and help reduce scarring, these 100 percent waterproof bandages stay in place for up to 5 days, protecting wounds even through handwashing and showering.

My Reaction: 60% better than what? 60% better than the other one? So 120% better healing?

BAND AID TOUGH STRIPS

Provide heavy-duty, durable wound care protection that stays with you all day. These bandages feature super-stick adhesive to stay on up to 24 hours.

My reaction: Stays on for up to 24 hours? The Hydro Seal one is supposed to stay on for 5 days. So this one ain’t so tough.

BAND AID FLEXIBLE FABRIC

Designed to cushion painful wounds while they heal, these colorful flexible fabric bandages are made with a protective Quilt-Aid^® comfort pad that won’t stick to the wound for gentle removal.

My reaction: So the Hydro Seal and Tough ones stick to the wound? That’s not good!

BAND AID WATERPROOF

Features a 100% waterproof design with a unique Quilt-Aid Pad for cushion and comfort, and they stay on even when wet. Made with Memory Weave fabric for comfort & flexibility fabric with a strong adhesive that stays in place for up to 24 hours.

My reaction: Memory weave fabric? The fabric has a memory? It has a consciousness? I don’t like the sound of that.

There are also four other types: Skin Flex, Tru-Stay, Decorated and Home Wound Care. I cannot be bothered to figure out how they differ from one another or whether they are just more variations on the same version.

In metaphorical terms, I am left standing in an ocean of water and dying of thirst because there are too many choices and too little clarity to choose between them. I grabbed a generic brand that claims to be 10x tougher and waterproof with super strong adhesion. Tougher than what, waterproof for how long and more adhesive than what… I have no idea.

I just want a damn band-aid for a half-inch cut on my finger! Why is that so complicated?

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   band-aids · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments.

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.

~ R. Buckminister Fuller, 1895 – 1983

American Architect, Writer, Designer, Inventor and Futurist.

Hmmm, does that brightly coloured caterpillar that catches your eye offer a life lesson?

I am on the lookout for caterpillars in my nature rambles now. Caterpillars for the most part emerge in either April and May or August and September. Many of the most striking ones emerge in the late summer and early autumn period.

A bit of caterpillar trivia. Caterpillars live for 4 to 8 weeks eating leaves and shedding their skin several times before entering the pupa stage. The pupa stage can last a few days to a couple of weeks for caterpillars that emerge in the Spring.

But many of the caterpillars we see now will remain in their chrysalis or cocoon, or sometimes in caterpillar form, all winter long resting in a dormant state known as diapause.

Caterpillars at this time of year delight nature nuts like myself because of their brilliant colours and striking markings. Why are they so brightly coloured? Many feed on specific toxic plants and store the poison in their bodies. Their bright colours warn predators that they are bad tasting, toxic or even poisonous.

Their bold patterns and bright red, yellow or orange colouration – like the ones displayed in this post – say to prospective predators: Don’t eat me. I will make you sick! Predators quickly learn that these flashy colours translate to an unpleasant meal.

Both butterflies and moths pass through the four stages of metamorphosis: egg, larva, caterpillar and adult. The transformation they undergo has become a common and powerful metaphor for personal and spiritual transformation. It mirrors how each of us grow, evolve and transform throughout lives to become the fully formed person we are meant to be.

As R. Buckminister points out, the caterpillar does not reveal or hint at what it will eventually become. It must trust in the transformation process it is born into and play its part.

We are more self-aware than the caterpillar. But we still have to trust in the process and work through the metamorphosis to reach our potential and achieve our destiny. The process happens quite quickly for caterpillars but can last a lifetime for us. Sometimes we metamorphize several times before we become who we are meant to be.

So by all means, admire the caterpillar for its brilliant colours. But at the same time, partake of the lesson it provides. Embrace the process of transformation however hard it may become. The destination is worth the rigours of the journey.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   butterflies · caterpillars · metamorphosis · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · mothsNo Comments.

Hmmm, could we rewrite history to erase his very existence?

The year is 2059. Tom comes home from his first day of Grade 10 in a New York City secondary school. His father asks him how his first day went. Imagine the following conversation.

“Well, History class was kind of weird. We’re studying U.S. history. But the chapter covering 2025 to 2029 in our textbooks is just two blank pages. We complained to the teacher. But she said it was not a printing mistake and that we should not ask anymore about it.”

“Oh, well… I guess I can let you in on the truth. That was the second term in the White House for the Orange Turd. We’ve all collectively agreed to pretend those years never happened.”

“Orange Turd?”

“That’s what many of us called Donald Trump.”

“Donald Trump? Oh, come on! I’ve heard that story. It’s just an urban legend.”

“I wish I could say it was, son. We’ve worked hard for years to create the impression it was just an urban legend. But it actually happened.”

“No way. The urban legend goes that he was indicted in four separate criminal cases between his first and second term and was found guilty on 34 criminal counts. You expect me to believe that a guy like that really got elected to a second term?”

“Sadly, yes he did. It’s something those of us around at the time do not like to talk about.”

“You’re bullshitting me, Dad. The legend says he had an affair with a porn star called Stormy Daniels. Stormy? That’s a made-up name if I ever heard on. And he supposedly paid her $130,000 in hush money.”

“Again, all true. That’s what one of the criminal cases was about. If I recall correctly, she was the one who first called him the Orange Turd.”

“How naïve do you think I am, Dad? The legend says he wanted to make Canada the 51^st state and take over Greenland. And that he wanted to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants and make Mexico pay for it.”

“As improbable as that sounds, all of it is true.”

“Sure. And I suppose he could said he could end the Israel-Hamas / Palestinian conflict in 24 hours. Same for the Russia – Ukraine war.”

“Every crazy story you’ve heard about Trump is true. He was a walking, talking shit show from day one. That’s why we pretend those years never happened. Go ahead. Google Donald Trump.”

“What the hell? There’s only one hit. It just says Orange Turd and nothing else.”

“Yup, even Google agreed to erase all mention of him. Now let’s never speak of the subject ever again.”

Could we really make it happen? Could we scrub history and erase Trump’s existence from it? Weed b Gon helps us eliminate weeds. If we all pull together, we could conjure Trump b Gone and erase him from the annals of history.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Donald Trump · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Orange turd · Stormy DanielsNo Comments.

Hmmm, is wandering the backstreets of memory a healthy practice?

We all reminisce from time to time. It is part of being human or more accurately of the human condition. Looking back to make sense of where we have arrived in our life. How the past shaped and influenced who we became and how it may influence what tomorrow may bring.

What does science tell us about this mental exercise? The experts say that reminiscing about the past acts as an emotional safety net helping our brains process stress and build identity. Several principles come into play:

Our brains used a process called fading affect bias to lessen the sting of negative memories over time while keeping positive ones vivid. Okay, guilty as charged.

Autobiographical memories are anchored to our formative years (ages 10 to 30) creating a reminiscence bump that supplies building blocks for our sense of identity. Hmmm, perhaps yes, but the particular arc our life takes may change what the most formative years are.

We sometimes exhibit rosy retrospection bias which means editing out stress or boredom from historical events. This can make our past feel simpler and more special than it actually was at the time. Yes, guilty as charged.

Sensory triggers – familiar sights, old songs, distinctive smells – activate the hippocampus and amygdala areas of our brain releasing the chemical dopamine. This can convert a random sensory cue into a comforting memory. Yes, no argument here.

Now my take on the exercise. Nostalgia is part and parcel of reminiscing – a desire to return to a time in our life when things were, at least in the filter of memory, simpler or better. It is a way to escape from the pressures of finding our way in the modern world and the bear traps scattered throughout it.

We reach back to recall the periods of joy that may have lasted a long time – months or years – or only a brief time – days or weeks. We call up these periods like precious gemstones and polish them so they seem even brighter.

For me personally, I reach back most often for the simpler times when life had fewer moving parts. Before computers, cell phones, the internet and AI – the pre-digital era.

Yes, things took longer to undertake. We did things manually with the margin of error that comes with it. But I was able to keep pace with life back then. Now it races on ahead of me. I try to say: Go ahead. Leave me behind. I am okay with that. But it drags me along in its relentless wake.

Life in the rearview mirror may indeed be selectively edited by rosy retrospection. As we age and our memory begins to lose traction, the good memories are the ones that tend to endure and that is a good thing.

I have more years behind me than ahead of me. So I permit myself to wander now and then through the corridors and backstreets of memory. I know I cannot stay there. But it comforts me to linger a bit and shelter from the hurly-burly of modern life if only for a few hours. It keeps me grounded when life feels out of my control.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · nostalgia · reminiscence · reminiscing · rosy retrospection biasNo Comments.

Hmmm, can you hear their voices in the wind?

I am not particularly fond of the telephone whether it is a land line or a cell phone. The ringing of the phone, or the tone of a cell phone, always strikes me as intrusive and disturbs my peace. It is annoyingly insistent: Answer me! Answer me! Answer me! If I choose not to answer, I have to check for a message later which puts an obligation on me to call back.

But I have learned about a new type of phone that is much more to my liking: The Wind Phone. An unconnected, rotary dial phone installed outdoors in a quiet setting – a park or conservation area or memorial garden – that lets people symbolically speak to deceased loved ones.

The concept was created by a Japanese man by the name of Itaru Sasaki in 2010. He built a disconnected phone booth in his garden to help him cope with the death of his cousin. It has since become a widespread global movement for dealing with grief. Wind Phones have been installed worldwide with approximately 130 in Canada.

There is one installed in Beckett Forest at Dundas Valley Conservation Area which is one of my regular haunts for nature rambles. It is nestled in the trees and easy to miss if you are not paying attention.

Beneath the phone there are lines of verse that begin with:

This phone will never ring. It is connected by love to nowhere and everywhere.

It is for those who have an empty place in their hearts left by a loved one.

Say hello, say goodbye. Talk of the past, the present, the future.

The lines that follow encourage anyone who encounters the device to use it as a means to achieve solace and comfort.

The wind has long had symbolic meaning. It can symbolize change and transformation because the wind alters its course without warning. It represents the unstoppable nature of life transitions which of course includes death.

In ancient languages, the word for wind is the same as the word for spirit. Hence, the wind can symbolize the spirit and the soul which live on after death.

The final line in the verse below the Wind Phone is: This phone is not connected or monitored. I imagine that line is partly there for literal, unobservant people who might see it and think: Oh, wow! An old style pay phone. My cell phone battery is dead, so this is just what I need!

But the line is also a challenge to believe the very opposite. To be drawn into the invitation and believe that the Wind Phone offers a means of connection that nothing can else can provide or approximate.

Cast your message on the wind and let it be carried through the corridors of memory and remembrance. Crossing the boundary line between life and death connecting you to the loved one who went on ahead to a place we will all inhabit in the fullness of time.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Dundas Valley Conservation Area · grief · Itaru Sasaki · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · solace · Wind PhoneComments Off on The Wind Phone

Hmmm, do we need to crawl out of our skin to put the troubles of the past behind us?

I found this remnant of a Water Snake skin by the side of the Grindstone Creek lagoons earlier this week. You can see from the remnant that Water Snakes can get quite large in Ontario – anywhere from 2-1/2 to 4 feet long.

Snakes shed their skin regularly throughout their life to make room for their growing bodies and to remove dirt, damage and tiny pests. A bigger, fresher layer of skin grows beneath the old one and the snake simply crawls out of the old skin. This happens as many as 12 times a year for young snakes and 2 to 6 times a year for adult snakes.

Aside from my intellectual interest in noting one of nature’s adaptations, the observation spurred some contemplation. It could be very useful in humans had this ability. Not actually shedding one’s skin, of course, but doing so in a symbolic way to shake off the detritus that we accumulate in our lifetime.

Imagine you have been through a very difficult time in your life. For example:

Your have been struggling to hold your marriage together for several years but the end comes and you cannot avoid it any longer.

You have been grinding it out for years in a job you hate but need to pay the bills. You finally decide you have to quit and embrace the process of finding new employment.

You made a serious error in judgement that has come back to haunt you and is now forcing you to take your life in a new direction.

Now imagine you could symbolically shed the skin you wore through those trying times. Let the skin slough off of you and the dark days you have experienced are left behind. It would be a tangible way of turning the page in your life. A definitive break with that stage in your life you endured but never want to relive.

I think that perhaps we do so without realizing it.

For better or for worse, moving on from a time of trial is never easy. A part of that time will live on in us as a lesson learned. Strength can be gained in the long term from a time of struggle. But the immediate future is a period of turmoil as we work to leave a part of ourselves behind.

The sobering reality is that we have to be less for a while before we can become whole again. Such is the nature of new beginnings. We seldom ask to have the experience and cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel while it is happening. But eventually our old skin is cast aside and we move ahead in a new skin that is clean and more resilient for the experience.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week

Tags:   metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · New skin · snake shedding its skin · Water SnakeComments Off on Shedding the Skin of Darker Days

Hmmm, is being first the only way to win?

I was at an ATM located on the outside wall of a bank at a plaza earlier this week. This particular bank is at the entrance to the plaza from a small side street. I avoid that entrance when driving because it is always congested and is frequently the source of conflict between drivers.

I heard the blast of a car horn behind me as I used the ATM. Both drivers rolled down their window and hurled f-word laced curses at each other. I was tempted to turn around and see what was going on but thought better of it. People in a state of sudden rage can be offended just by someone looking at them in the wrong way.

Road rage is certainly not a new phenomenon. A quick Google AI search produced Ontario stats on the issue. More than 80% of Ontario drivers have witnessed dangerous driving such as speeding, unsafe lane changes and aggressive gestures. More than 50% admit they engage in aggressive actions such as honking angrily, tailgating or cutting others off.

But I see road rage as more of a symptom than a self-contained condition. We live in a stressful and anxiety-inducing society. The 4,400 pound vehicles we drive unfortunately give some of us a disproportionate sense of power and invincibility that breeds confrontation.

Life moves at a breakneck pace. It seems that every day we are on the cusp of being overtaken and left behind. Being left behind is something we inherently fear like falling off a steep cliff without a safety rope.

But what if being left behind is not such a bad thing? Yes, there are certain thresholds – such as income and the ability to pay the bills – that we need to meet to survive. That is a given.

But do we really need to be always running the race? Do we always need to win or finish in the top tier? Do we always have to have many more people behind us than ahead of us? Do we need to participate in the race at all?

Or to put it another way: Perhaps we are better off running our own race at our own comfortable pace with the luxury to rest whenever we see fit. Life is after all a marathon – not a sprint. It should not be about reaching a hypothetical finish line before anyone else. If we fall into that trap, the stress will affect our health and the finish line may come much sooner than we hope.

Life expectancy here in Canada is currently around 80 for a man and 84 for a women. It is a long journey that demands patience and endurance. Life should be about enjoying the journey without obsessing over the finish line.

So take the less congested entrance into the plaza even if it means someone else gets to the ATM before you. Being first is not always winning. It turns into losing very quickly if rage becomes your predominant emotion and you die of a stress-induced heart attack at 50.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   marathon · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · road rage · sprintComments Off on The Marathon of Life

Hmmm, will anyone be left standing at his side when the end comes?

News flash: The Donald Trump presidency death spiral is picking up speed. Okay, so that is not really a news flash. It is an ongoing spectacle that is impossible not to watch with both disbelief and guilty pleasure.

The Great Catering Truck Subterfuge is the latest head-shaking event in the Can this really be happening? comedy of errors. In case you are one of the few people who have been able to look away from the Trump fiasco, here are the details as reported by the media.

Trump boarded Air Force One in view of television cameras as he left a NATO Summit in Turkey last month. In response to a credible threat that Iran planned to fire a missile at the plane, he was smuggled off the plane, stowed away in a catering truck and transported to another military aircraft instead.

That embarrassing escapade is part and parcel of Trump’s disastrous war with Iran in partnership with Israel. Anyone with half a brain can see that he has created a war he cannot win and yet cannot pull out of without huge damage to his already tattered reputation.

At the middle of that bottomless pit is the Strait of Hormuz nightmare. Trump continues to insist that the Strait is under U.S. control and that its reopening is imminent. Iran continues to block the Strait and use it as a master bargaining chip in the on again, off again negotiations.

Everyone surrounding Trump knows that the war has become an unmitigated disaster. But they also know that Trump – in his infinite capacity for self-delusion – will never accept that reality. The only path forward is to keep up the flow of rhetoric however ridiculous it becomes.

It will surprise no one (except Trump himself) that the rats are beginning to abandon the ship. Elon Musk saw the writing on the wall early on and bailed out. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has been Trump’s loyal, puppet mouthpiece, has announced she will be leaving her role.

Leavitt’s cover story is that she wants to spend more time with her children. Translation: I knew it would be a tough job. But I never imagined the Trump presidency would become such a colossal shit show and that my part in in it would ruin my reputation. Get me the hell out of here!

The beginning of the end of the Trump presidency has already been reached. His approval level is at a new record low below 20% putting him below other past presidents at this this point in their terms.

The Midterm Elections happen in early November. The Democrats are slight favourites – leading the generic ballot by 6.7 points – to gain control of both chambers of Congress. (How it is even that close defies logic.) Trump and his cronies know that if the Democrats take control, Trump will be impeached.

The destructive path of the Trump presidency is accelerating toward its inevitable collapse. The death spiral is quite spectacular with fires popping up everywhere and the yawning pit about to swallow him up. The only real question is: Will anyone still be standing by his side when the end comes?

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Donald Trump · Karoline Leavitt · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Midterm Elections · Strait of Hormuz · war with IranComments Off on The Trump Death Spiral

Hmmm, is the ocean floor of your life definitively your own?

As I write this post, it is the Canadian, civic holiday that is observed on the first Monday of August. A very welcome long weekend for those still in the workforce.

I retired in 2023. Accordingly, for me, the holiday means only that there will be less traffic on the roads and conservation area parking lots will be crowded. I try to plan around crowded environments as I prefer quiet, peaceful places.

It feels like more than three years since my last day of work – almost like another lifetime ago which in some respects it is. Some people have a difficult time adjusting to retirement. They feel they have lost their purpose. Fortunately that is not the situation for me.

I never defined myself by my job. It was the way I paid the mortgage or the rent and the way I put food on the table. I did take pride in my doing my work well and being acknowledged for it. But I was more than ready to put work in my rear view on my 65^th birthday.

I do wonder how the people I worked with are coping with the state of affairs these days. The disruptive effect of the orange-faced crackpot south of the border must be making everyone very nervous about the security of their job.

In retrospect, I was fortunate in my working career to only be downsized out of a job once. It was a very worrisome time but I survived it. These days it is not uncommon to be shown the door several times over the course of a career. I cannot imagine how difficult that must be.

Forgive me if I am rambling a bit. Consider it the privilege of being a senior. All of the above is a prelude to my contemplating, partly in retrospect, the stages of our lives – childhood, youth, education years, working years, retirement – and how they influence our outlook.

Where you find your sense of meaning and purpose will necessarily evolve throughout your life. My advice is this: It must be grounded in something deeper than your job title and your annual performance appraisals. Retirement should be one door gently closing and another one swinging open to greet you – not a cliff you step off with no safety net to catch you.

The ocean floor of your life – the secure place out of reach of all the storms and tumultuous waves that we have to navigate as life rolls on – needs to be a quiet and still place that endures and provides refuge. It needs to be definitively your place not dependant on anyone or anything else. Mine resembles the photo at the head of this post although I need to substitute “forest” for “ocean.”

If you are still in the workforce, I hope you were able to unwind over the long weekend and do the things you enjoy most. Every long weekend should be a practice run for the day you hang up your nameplate and sail off into the sunset of retirement well prepared for the freedom you have earned.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · ocean floor · retirementComments Off on Cultivating Your Ocean Floor