January 12: Snow, Another Car Appointment, Drop of Water

Snow.  We have snow this morning.  When I went to bed last night, I was expecting to wake up to a full-blown blizzard.  The weather reports were predicting over a foot of thick rain.  I woke to a couple of inches on the ground, and the wind was non-existent.  I was shocked.  Instead of a white-knuckle drive to work, I had a mildly slower drive than usual down the highway.  Not too bad.

I drove my wife's Subaru to work this morning.  I dropped it off at the garage for an oil change.  We'll see what catastrophic repair the mechanic says we need this time.  Each time I've dropped off one of our cars for an oil change in the last year, the mechanic has called to tell me of some major problem with the vehicle.  I'm not buying what the garage is selling any more.  I'm a big believer in second opinions now.

This early a.m., I opened my copy of A Christmas Carol randomly to this famous speech from Jacob Marley:



Preach, Jacob

 "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again.  "Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolance, were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

The reason this passage spoke to me was because I was listening to my local public radio station.  It was a news report about the contenders for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you already know I like Republicans about as much as I like ingrown hairs on my ass.  However, this news report irritated me more than usual.

Coming off the New Hampshire Republican primary, with Mitt Romney pretty much stomping his competition, blood is in the political air.  All the Republicans are going into a feeding frenzy on each other.  Usually, I wouldn't have a problem with Republicans tearing each other apart.  I actually enjoy it.  But these guys, instead of focusing on unemployment, hunger, poverty, foreclosure, bankruptcy--you know, all the things that normal people are worried about--are talking about each other's shady business dealings.  They're talking about what a shitty job President Obama has done.  They're talking about the "drop of water" instead of the real business of humankind.

What a different country we would live in if the people in charge made "mankind" their business.  What a different world we would live in if everybody made charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence our business.  Jacob Marley had it right.  Charles Dickens had it right.

Saint Marty wishes all human beings (and Republicans, which is a stretch) would get it right, too.