Sentenced to Sentience in 2012

Unawareness would be a gift in times like these--a blessing to rinse the mind of Mitt Romney, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and their content-free daily kneejerks as well as pathetic it-could-be-worse defenses of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

If old age is a shipwreck, an inner voice wheedles, just sit on the sand and stop sending messages in a bottle. On a Netflix life raft, it’s possible to wallow in the past and give up all hope of rescue.

Yet, the present and future keep crowding in. On the 40^th anniversary of Watergate, Woodward and Bernstein resurface with a joint byline to claim that Nixon “was far worse than we thought.” An arguable assertion, since many of us thought the Unindicted Coconspirator was as bad as it gets.

And this prompts the question “How bad will it be after next November?”

For those reared on old Hollywood movies and early network TV, the hope of happy endings is ingrained beyond all 21^st century evidence to the contrary. Barack Obama’s face keeps superimposing itself on the classic picture of Harry Truman grinning over the headline of Dewey’s victory in 1948.

So, amid all efforts to stop 2012 sentience, one short note in a bottle: Darkest before dawn, you never know what’s around the corner, life is unpredictable and all that.

Meanwhile, tee up the Netflix.