Faking It

I realized about 5 years ago that some people spend their whole lives faking it. Embellishing their credentials for a job, claiming experience and/or college degrees that were never earned from colleges that were never even attended!

I had a friend who got so caught up in her own lies that it became unbearable to be her friend anymore. Serving as witness to her constant revision of her personal history and being called upon to back her up each time the lie was uttered was just too stressful. I never knew whether the story of the day was that when she was younger, she was a poor unwed mother (which was true except for the poor unwed part) OR she was by turns a DJ, airplane pilot, ballet dancer, heiress, cancer victim. I'm still not sure which of those versions was true, but she seemed to be enormously successful at spinning the web. She is still successful based in part on episodes of her life that probably aren't even real!

After the 2000 presidental elections I had to face the sobering fact that the truth didn't seem to matter to many people at all. As long as the spin is good and we WANT to believe, we "act as if". Consequently we have ended up with inept business leaders, mayors, governors and even a leader of the free world (or two) who push their own agenda at the sometimes criminal expense of the rest of us.

How long has this been going on? It's too scary to even ponder that question. So, I guess my feeling is that it is critically important that everyone GET REAL now. As we found out last August 29th, our very lives depend upon it. Tell the truth about the erosion of our wetlands. Tell the truth about our levee systems. And for God's sake, if you are our president, please tell the truth about the credentials of those you appoint to manage things like natural disasters and terrorist attacks. I don't care how much he contributes to your campaign or how tight he is with your peeps.

I for one don't care if our next leader visits a shrink, smokes pot or fools around on his wife. What he does in the oval office with his interns is HIS business. As long as he is capable of handling an emergency, he's my guy! He should be an exceptional leader. I don't give a damn if he sucks as a husband, father or dog catcher. Let God worry about his sins. I've got enough to do dealing with insurance companies.