Sometimes I long to go back to that black and white world, where life is simple and predictable.  Everybody knew their place in the world because their world was confined to family and friends who lived around them.  Most people were basically honest and good god-fearing folks.

Wars, radio, television, satellite communication and Internet changed all that.  Now our world expands from our little bubble of the familiar to a whole universe of unfamiliar, unfathomable and often threatening things.  We have lost control of our lives and even our destinies.  We are caught up in a whirlwind of consumption, materialism and self-interest.  Our senses are overwhelmed.  There is no silence, only noise or music piped directly into our ear canals.  There is no peace.  We must be connected every moment by our smart phones and computers, with Facebook, Twitter and every other form of social media.  The television must be on every waking moment and too often, even through our fitful sleep.

We have become physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually exhausted.  The rate of change has exceeded our ability to keep up.  We have become angry, without hope, confused, out of control, adrift in life.

We don’t know what is true and what is lie.  We can’t differentiate between reality and unreality.  We’ve lost the ability to know right from wrong.  There is no peace in the world, at home or in our own minds.  That is why we long for the old, simple, black and white days dimly remembered and heavily romanticized. We don’t trust anybody who looks, thinks, dresses or acts different from ourselves.  We want simple answers but complex problems cannot be solved with simple answers.  We look for one person to step up and convince us that he or she can make it all better.  That’s where we are today.  In the words of St. Paul, written almost two thousand years ago, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death”  And now…back to American politics.