Just Walk on By

"My Comedy Channel? Fox News

My News Source? Comedy Central"

Now there’s a bumper sticker you can hang your hat on!

On a Sunday morning walk under sunny skies, taking in the light air of a New Mexico January day, I was particularly pleased to be out in the weather. Earlier I had watched CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood, while I worked at finishing a spreadsheet for getting my 2011 taxes done. A feeling of accomplishment, indeed. Like on most Sundays, the primary aim of CBS’s morning offering is to inform and to entertain, today being no exception—a segment on a Chinese factory workers who produce Apple products, a report on a relatively new but very successful American fashion designer, a review of Martin Scorsese's latest film, along with an interview with him and a companion piece on automatons, an interview with Bradd Pitt, and so on. My favorite part of this program, going back to the days of Charles Kuralt, is the nature video that closes the program. Today it was the winter coast of Cape Cod.

So when I started my morning walk, the groundwork for the special spring in my step had been laid. I felt good about my progress toward finishing my part of getting taxes done, and I had a good taste in my mouth from a couple of cups of satisfying morning coffee and from delightful and informative television programming. What a welcome break from the daily news and the political drama of the 2012 presidential election. Anyone looking for a hearty dose of mean spiritedness has to go no farther than a computer keyboard or a television.

I make no secret of my political persuasion, but frankly, I generally avoid conversations with folks from the other side of the aisle. I’ll leave it to the politicians, and when the time comes, I will vote my conscience. As my mother used to attribute to her father, “only a fool argues about religion and politics.” Maybe someone well known said that first. Over the years I’ve wasted some of my own time arguing such things, but could it be that in my late 60s I’ve actually understood the merits of just letting it pass by?

I don’t invite attention and possible vandalism to my automobile by plastering it with announcements of one preference or another, although I love seeing bumper stickers that cause me to chuckle, laugh out loud, nod my head in agreement, or even say to a traveling companion, “I like that”. I like that, indeed. If I care enough about something, someone’s going to hear from me. In the past, when I was a bit more vocal about things, a friend might say, “Why don’t you tell us how you really feel about [fill in the blank]. These days, not so much. At times, that feels somehow incomplete, but more times, it simply feels like peace. And so it is.

Just Walk on By--Albuquerque, NM (January 28, 2012)

R. Harold Hollis