As a child, I often wondered why old people were so crabby. In hindsight, the main reason was probably that I was a particularly annoying child. But next on the list was a wider issue: so much of the world was annoying to anyone who'd seen a long span of it.
It still is. As a culture and as individuals, we make the same mistakes, over and over. And so do our elected officials, ever willing to clutch for short-term gains and downplay the long-term costs. It's irritating. How can they be such fools?
The answer to that, of course, is because they're human. We're not very good at long-term thinking. Farmers get a little better than most, needing to look to harvest, to planting, to the next year -- but you won't find many Jeffersonian yeomen (or women) holding high-level public office; they're too busy trying to keep their heads above water, financially and sometimes literally.*
It's enough to make a person grumpy -- and it often does.
So shoot, if you must, this old gray head, but maybe try not to be such a nitwit instead.
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* Unless they're too short of the stuff. Or have both too little and too much, a trick California's weather and infrastructure are managing to accomplish far too often of late.
Yep.
ReplyDeleteDifferent tune, rearranged lyrics, but still the same old song and dance I've seen before.
Also, as you get older, you have more aches and pains that won't go away, which does nothing to help the disposition.