Beating the Blues

Everyone I talk to ever since the advent of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket has the jitters, the heebie-jeebies. That we could really lose this election to the snide Moose Girl is now haunting every Democratic heart: we are all spooked. To say nothing of feeling blue--and I don't refer here to the electoral map. The ship is going down, for God's sake, and America is having another election about--ABORTION? Feeling blue and being spooked are not a good places to be. But how can you not feel jittery, blue, spooked? Marc Ginsberg wrote in the Huffington Post today:

"McSame is committing grand larceny... stealing the "change" message. He's throwing the wool over voters' eyes. He's pretending that the he's not the latest GOP fox in the henhouse. Hiding behind the skirts of Sarah Palin, the GOP is swift-boating the truth once again. And Democrats should be ready with an overwhelming counterattack."

I'm feeling exhausted by the lies, ravaged, trashed. So, what to do?

As most of my friends and readers will already know, when stressed, one of my personal antidotes is to ask a question, open the Thesaurus at random, and point my finger. The place where my finger lands either offers an immediate answer, sometimes astounding me, or it doesn't apply at all. Admittedly this technique won't always work. Sometimes, however, truly uncanny stuff happens. It did last night.

Last night I asked about Sarah Palin and John McCain. Tell me what's really going on here? I queried. My finger landed precisely between these two phrases:

"have an ulterior motive" and "have an eye to the main chance."

They were under the larger heading of "CUNNING," and these were some of the proximate words:
"sly, play the fox, try a ruse, shift, dodge, juggle, maneuver, jockey, double-cross, spin a web, weave a plot, contrive, play tricks, pull a fast one, outsmart, outwit, go one better, snatch from, waylay, undermine, ambush." This seems to meet the question perfectly as a description of what is really going on. McCain has pulled a fast one and is now trying to go one better than the opposition. It was an ambush, and with it, he has now managed to snatch the lead from Obama.

But this is a confirmation of what we already know, albeit a pretty consummate one. Since I'd gotten an ace in the hole with my first question, I decided to push my luck and ask another: Will it work?

The answer here began somewhat cryptically, with two phrases "like a cat on hot bricks, like a hen on a hot griddle." (Or maybe, like a barracuda on a curling iron?) My Thesaurus entry then went on to advance what seemed like an amazingly accurate description of Sarah Palin:

"stirring, strong, quick, brisk, nippy, spry, smart, energetic, forceful, up-and-coming, frisky, spirited, mettlesome, full of beans, animated, vivacious, on one's toes, restless, nervy."

Okay, I continued on: Can Obama still win, Sarah's nervy up-and-comingness notwithstanding? Here is what I got by way of an answer:

"Be superior, transcend, rise above, surmount, tower over, outreach, exceed, out-Herod Herod (!), carry off the laurels, bear the palm, wear the crown, surpass, reach a new high, go one better, trump, show quality, shine, excel, assert one's superiority, be too much for, steal the show, outshine, eclipse, overshadow, ridicule, outclass, outwit, get the better of, trounce, rise to the occasion, defeat, tip the scale, change the balance, be up on, be one up."

I followed a further reference in the same entry, and got: "Give hope, have faith, rest assured, feel confident, bank on, intend, keep one's fingers crossed, remain hopeful, never say die, keep smiling, persevere, inspire hope, [be] without discouragement, without despair, authentic, well-grounded, authoritative, influential, give testimony, cite the evidence."

That seemed to describe Obama pretty definitively, and the path he has been consistently charting. These answers aren't definitive; they don't predict an outcome. But they do thrust themselves rather tellingly straight into the process. The way I see it, after receiving my reading, in order for our phoenix to successfully perform his fiery rite, it is up to each one of us (his supporters) to fervently, scrupulously, and unrelentingly follow this same guidance:

"Give hope, have faith, rest assured, feel confident, bank on, intend, keep one's fingers crossed, remain hopeful, never say die, keep smiling, persevere, inspire hope, [be] without discouragement, without despair, authentic, well-grounded, authoritative, influential, give testimony, cite the evidence."

With such thoughts we create an omnidirectional field, a hidden incantation--so that one candidate cannot conceal the other the way a penny in visual space can hide the sun. I leave you to conjecture which one is the penny, and which one, the sun.