Mirror
Today the White House declared victory over the coronavirus while infection rates continue to soar and people suffer. But this is the spirit of our government, a crazy-making funhouse mirror designed to leave us disoriented. “One person dies from coronavirus every ninety seconds,” said the television.
Six days until the election and color-coded maps of the nation clutter our screens while pundits outline increasingly baroque strategies for flipping states, winning battlegrounds, and carving a path to victory through shades of red and blue. It looks like half the country is burning while the other half is freezing.
Meanwhile, I try to do my work. But I keep wandering into the weeds of polling websites, compulsively refreshing the latest numbers from Pennsylvania and Arizona as if I might find revelation. The numbers look encouraging. Maybe we’ll put an end to this sorry chapter when we let a vicious clown take the wheel. It’s an awful feeling, being afraid to hope. But I’ve relied on pessimism as a protective measure for too long, only to discover it’s another warped mirror.