The Sunday Memory Drawer - A Broken Toilet Tank And Some Philosophy

We are yet in another post Election Day spin cycle.   This time around, it is the Republican side in the so-called driver's seat as people soundly reject the current Democratic administration in Washington, DC.   We spin around and around and around.   Much like the swirl in the toilet seen above.   All of it took me back about 12 or so years.   I believe Obama was in his first year as President.   And I needed to call a handyman.

Tom was a guy who worked for the owner of my condo apartment.  Not the one I am in currently.   This was the flat down on the first floor.  Whenever something in our unit needed repairs, we called Tom and he usually showed up pretty quickly, even in light of the fact that he recently started a new job as a medical attendant at the local Veterans Administration hospital.

Such was the case when we suddenly need both toilet tanks to be completely rebuilt. A job that stretched over two days, but that was okay because Tom was a pretty neat guy to talk to. He was in his 60s at the time, a former Vietnam vet, and somebody who had done a lot of "book learning" as Jed Clampett might say. He was amazingly unbiased in an increasingly biased world and I always appreciated hearing his take on issues because of this incredible and innate ability to be non-judgmental.

So, I'm standing nearby to lend an extra hand if needed as Tom took apart a toilet tank. And the round table discussion began with a rather ominous question from Mr. Fix-It.

"So, tell me. What do you think of Obama?"

Ummmmmmm.

Because diverse opinions those days could illicit dirty looks and even worse, I wanted to choose my answer carefully. To this day, I prefer not to discuss politics in public. I took a deep breath before speaking.

"Well, so far, I'm not a huge fan."

I thought my answer was safe and non-committal.  . Giving my true feelings but with a little fence straddling at the same time. I braced for Tom's response.

"Well, I voted for him..."

Len cued up a big gulp.

"...and I think the guy's a disaster."

Whew.

Okay, now anybody who reads this blog regularly knows, my view of then-President Obama was pretty much the same opinion I have had of most political leaders. They all suck. Most spend all their time either getting the job in the first place and then figuring out how to keep it. Very little care and attention is paid to their constituencies. Their fans and/or enemies, those either on the far left or the far right, pull and pull the rest of us as if we're the last piece of Turkish Taffy the day after Halloween. Nobody wins. Everybody loses. And style trumps (pun slightly intended) substance every day and in every way.

But, at that point in time. style seemed to be all we are concerned with and people/voters spend a lot less time thinking about world and American history than they do about the most inconsequential of trivia. I didn't give a shit what Michelle Obama was wearing. I didn't give a shit what they named the family dog.  I didn't care that he had BBQ ribs expressed to him every Friday night from St. Louis.  Didn't care, didn't care, didn't care.

But, after talking to Tom the Handyman as he played with some heavy porcelain, I cared a lot more about the important stuff. Because he opened my eyes to issues I had only considered in passing. Here's a guy who was beating himself up for making a voting mistake the previous Election Day. Because, as a veteran who served his country in that debacle called the Vietnam Conflict, he was already reeling from the benefits that have been taken away from him since January. Because, as a health care technician, he was already seeing and hearing from people who are petrified about their future ability to care for themselves. Because, as an American who's been in combat, he fully knew all the ramifications of a passive international stance.

I listened to him for an hour as he alternated between wisdom and a faulty fill valve in my toilet tank. To test the mechanism, he flushed. And made a point.

"That's what I did with my vote last November."

For all the pundits and commentators and bloggers on the national scene, Tom the Handyman made the most salient points of all. Because his pain is real.

"Len, do you know the story about the Pied Piper of Hamelin?"

I know it. The kids blindly following sweet music to their ultimate doom.

Tom the Handyman was making his final point. And flushed one more time.

I thought of Tom again last week with the current election results.  I don't know where he is today.   Too bad.  I would like to discuss 2021 with him.

Dinner last night:  Mongolian beef from Chin Chin.