If Bush drives you crazy, he’s won

It’s easy to feel like the Bush administration is driving you crazy. Every day, it seems, there’s a new revelation about Bush lies, Bush incompetence, Bush dissembling, Bush favoritism.

In no way is he a uniter rather a divider. If there’s anyone who can shatter the composure of a concerned citizen who cares about truth, justice, and the American way, it’s George W. Bush. Just looking at him on TV, even with the sound off, makes me irritated.

But I’ve come to this conclusion: if Bush is continually bothering me, he’s won—in the same sense as we hear, “if the terrorists make us give up our way of life, they’ve won.”

Life is to be lived, not fretted about. If my psyche falls into a Bush-bashing frenzy every time I read a newspaper, watch CNN, or listen to talk radio, I’m allowing myself to be controlled by a neo-con administration whose goal is exactly that: to control the American citizenry.

Today I stomped dead blackberry vines on our rural Oregon property. I had sprayed them in the fall and they’re ready for stomping into the ground now. Like fine wine, there’s a right time for tending to these vines: the more brittle they are, the better. It’s good exercise. Sort of like step aerobics with thorns.

Our neighbors have built a large garage adjacent to the blackberry stomping grounds. It deeply irritates my wife and me. Once we had gotten the blackberries cleared, we were looking forward to a much better view of a nearby community lake. Then the three-bay garage went up, a grotesque unnatural intrusion on this part of our property.

It’s easy for me to focus on the garage whenever I’m walking or working within sight of it. I find myself looking in the garage’s direction even when there’s no need for me to do so. I can’t say that the irritation it produces in me is pleasant. But for some reason I’ve fallen into a habit of being bothered by the garage.

Today I tried something different. I did my best to accept the garage as a reality. It’s been built. It isn’t on our land, so there’s nothing I can do about it. What I can do is attend to my life on our property. To my leg, stomping dead blackberry vines right in front of me.

The garage has nothing to do with this. Can’t touch me. Can’t affect me, unless I choose to look at it. Which I can. If I want to.

If I don’t want to, I can look in the other direction. At land of ours that’s already blackberry free. No garage here. Just nature.

I don’t see any sign of the Bush administration right now. The sun is setting, wispy white clouds are slowly blowing by, in my office there’s just me and my laptop.

I’m all for regime change in this country. However, right now Bush and his cronies are like the neighboring garage. They’re there, and that’s a fact. But I don’t have to attend to them unless I want to.

And especially, I don’t have to let myself be driven crazy by them.

Comments

[Michael Smith]

Don’t let Bush drive you crazy, but don’t think you’re the only one with whom he doesn’t always sit well.

I’m guessing you might not be a Republican, but I’m trying to demonstrate that not all Republicans are of the Bush league. I’m running for President in the Oregon primary in 2008, in hopes of proving that a moderate message can gain an audience.

Take a look at my platform, and feel free to provide feedback, at http://www.smithforpresident.com.

Today’s politics are too much about name calling. We need to get issues into the debate any way possible. I’d encourage anyone to run for office, start a blog, or just start a discussion with their neighbors. Anything to spur engagement.

Thanks,

Michael Smith

[Cynthia]

Hey Brian,
Great post. It reminds me of one of my favorite tenets, "What other people say and do is about them; how you react to it is about you". It sounds so simple, but many people I know have a tough time understanding this. No one else can make you feel happy, or sad, or angry, etc. You ALLOW them and their behaviors to affect you and produce those feelings in yourself. The key concept is "choice". We choose how we let things affect us. Sounds like you got some great exercise!
Be well,
Cyn

[Boomer]

Nothing more funny than a limp wristed liberal crying about Bush. I can see by the overwhelming number of comments, 2 at this time, that your 500k hit listed could only be you and a few bored people logging on and off for the past 0 years.
Really, go away!

[Brian]

Boomer, nice to hear from you. You'll be unpleased to know that this blog is now up to 1,387,000 page views, thanks to visitors like you. Come back for more outrage whenever you want.

Oh, did you notice that George Bush has (thankfully) faded into the sunset and Barack Obama is the new sun shining brightly in our nation's political sky?

I feel so much better. Hope you're enjoying life as much as I am.

[Mort]

If all goes well you will most likely get a good sunburn from that new sun (Obama). Just smoke so dope and eat your veggies and watch the country die and pray east towards Obama. What a joke!