Charles Green Bush:
Let Us Have Peace! -Fortissimo, from Harper’s Weekly
(published June 19, 1869)

He Will Probably Never Recover
May caught me napping. It arrived while I spent most of my writing week escaping from a seriously twingy back pain that visited me for no apparent reason. One problem with even attempting to be a reasoning being comes with unreasonable events, occurrences that sidestep or somehow transcend reason. There never seems to be a reasonable end to the search for the cause of these afflictions. The doctor asks questions to which I can muster no reasonable response. The first prescription doesn't work. The second doesn't do much, either. Circa day three, I took a high-level pain pill The Muse had leftover from some prior procedure, one of the ones the doctor threatened to prescribe, so I took one. It didn't touch the pain, either. Maybe that second batch of muscle relaxers worked, or, after four down days, my body started responding to rest. By the fifth morning, my back still felt twingy, but the twinges no longer elicited grimaces. A week spent in intermittent agony serves to reset the gauge intended to determine whether I'm okay. My threshold has been considerably reduced from where I'd grown accustomed to it.

I feel better now with what I previously would have sworn was worse. Experience can recalibrate judgment. I continued writing and railing about how it was because I do not want to lose the judgment that should conclude we're really not okay right now. Our incumbent has, indeed, proven himself to be an idiot again, an even more perfect one than he had proven himself to be the last time he abused his office's power. His cognitive functioning continues downward. His effectiveness remains non-existent. I'll probably recover from whatever unreasoning affliction visited me. We'll probably recover, too, from the unreasonable administration, which is still unable to administer anything. He will probably never recover, but we will.

——

Weekly Writing Summary

This CHope Story, Improv, describes the life of an inept actor who steadfastly refused to memorize the script and so Improv-ed his way through life. Congratulations or something. That inept actor became our incumbent.

Vasily Kandinsky: Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons) (1913)
" … as if his audience was supposed to care."
—
This CHope Story focuses upon my creative process. It includes pre-emptive Restarting to presumably ward off subsequent stalling and crashing. This ritual works enough of the time to appear to work.

Unknown, After Jean Restout: Saint Hymer in Solitude (c. 1735)
" … whether or not it accomplishes anything else."
—
This CHope Story finds me attempting to cope with a suddenly aching back while hoping it will resolve itself sooner. This BadBack affliction seems similar to what our society's experiencing at this moment.

Jacques Callot: Beggar on Crutches and Wearing a Hat, seen from Back, plate five from The Beggars (c. 1622)
" … I'd be aching, too, if I had to put up with all I put it through."
—
This CHope Story, SacredSarcasm, is a joke with a deliberately barbed punchline aimed at the so-called Most Powerful Man. Since we're a democracy, we're free to make fun of anyone elected to high office. It helps that they inevitably act absurd. Our current one's a near perfect butt. If only he understood that this is his primary responsibility.

John Tenniel: "Once," said the Mock Turtle, with a deep sigh, "I was a real turtle."Illustration from the 1911 Edition of Alice in Wonderland (1911)
"Congratulations, or something, Mr. President! Grow a pair!"
—
This CHope Story tries to make an important distinction between implementation and Infliction. Only apprentice change agents ever resort to Infliction as the means for achieving anything.

William Hogarth: The Punishment Inflicted on Lemuel Gulliver (1726)
"Good riddance to abysmal governance."
—
This CHope Story considers the paradox produced whenever a superior feels threatened enough to threaten Ire. This always seems like evidence of some strangely absent self-esteem.

Peter Paul Rubens: Hl. Ambrosius und Kaiser Theodosius (1615/1616)
"This reaction makes the so-called superior appear inferior and the complier seem spineless."
—

This week turned out to be a personally troubling writing week. I began with what had become my standard approach, considering our incumbent's strategic focus, which amounts to no strategic focus, but Improv. He's a second-rate "reality" television actor without evident experience memorizing scripts, but more studied in reciting teleprompter comments and engaging in a sorry sort of Improv. I next declared that I was Restarting, remarking on what had become a necessary initiating step before posting any fresh observations. I start my daily writing ritual these days by restarting my writing machine, believing that this effort might prevent a data-losing crash before I'm finished posting. Then the random event generator slipped into prominence in my writing ritual in the form of a sudden and surprising BadBack. Nothing I'd done seemed to have caused the wincing. I gritted my teeth the next morning to reflect on the SacredSarcasm necessary to retain and nourish our suddenly fragile democracy. I insisted that I would henceforth focus upon making sarcastic comments about the behaviors of our incumbent’s administration, and not only because it’s proven incapable of administering anything. I next reflected on how only apprentices and novices ever even attempt to Inflict change upon anyone, noting that this seemed to be the only approach our incumbent seems capable of employing. There are an infinite number of better options than this one if one's interested in successfully implementing change. I ended this writing week reporting how real leaders never feel moved to threaten to inflict their Ire upon anyone. This writing week, executed between gritted teeth, set a fresh focus for my remaining submissions in this series. I intend to channel my smart-ass self from here on out. Thank you for continuing to follow along!

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #CHope , #PureSchmaltz