Digressions of a Dilettante

Digressions of a Dilettante
Vignettes of Inanity by Bud Hearn

Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Windsock...Nature's Warning Device

Friends:

The Windsock...
Nature’s Warning Device


“The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind."
Bob Dylan

The Windsock... a simple but infallible indicator of wind direction and relative wind speed. It was imported from Japan and China and today hangs in the center of airfields. On an airfield, it is actually more practical than symbolic, but it does have symbolic application. It is unwise to ignore its advice…do so at your own peril.

So again, we’re importing helpful means from abroad to solve our dilemmas. Today’s dilemma? Funding a $700 billion solution to our credit crisis.

From the hangar office I can see it, and often metaphoricalize the windsock. I'm trying to do that as I attempt to digest the declension of our Empire that is requiring the massive $700 billion bailout of banking systems…hard to tell which way the wind is blowing just now, or how it will blow when this whirlwind has moved on ...as it will. The picture in my mind is of the devastation of Ike, the wind that just blew through Texas.

Smiling faces dominated the scene at Saturday's midnight announcement that an agreement in principle has been arrived at...I wondered what they were smiling for, in scorn or in mockery of the folks...us...who would be financing this method of relief. But there they were, hovering around Barney, flanked by Nancy, shadowed by Harry and lesser "Pillars of Principles" in the background for "show of support." I wondered on which runway they were landing this transport plane laden with pallets of freshly-minted cash, and if they were actually paying attention to the windsock of public opinion...apparently not.

It was, after all, the "Bush Plan..." Bush, that Master-Windsock Reader of all time. I think I saw a news clip of him once on the White House lawn, licking his index finger and thrusting it into the air, ostensibly to determine the wind direction of that moment. Could this be more of the same? Time will tell. Of course, we've all licked our index finger too, but less to determine the wind direction than to get the last little bit of fried chicken onto the taste buds.

I walked onto my deck recently amid the credit turmoil and did the lick-trick, and viola, I got an immediate answer...Go To China, the wind said. Heeding the wind direction, I immediately booked the trip to see for myself just where this bailout cash was coming from. So, off I go to the Orient for a couple of weeks, following the route of that master windsocker, Marco Polo--and wearing my Polo shirt, “Made in China,” as confirmation to the Immigration authorities of my appreciation of their efforts.

No doubt we’re in a serious mess. The wind will blow where it will blow, but I plan to leave a favorable impression on the beneficent Chinese while I’m there… hoping that our cyclone has passed on my return. And I plan to return ~ laden, I'm sure, with Treasures from Hong Kong and bills from Visa. And if the pawn shops and the main-street loan shops aren't closed when I return, I will pawn this stuff off and profit from my experience...hope to soon see “Made in America” again.


Bud
October 2, 2008

No comments: