I’m sorry that I just can’t make myself get upset over Charlie Gibson’s interview with Gov. Palin. She muffed the question about the Bush Doctrine? I’ll bet 95% of the people watching couldn’t correctly identify the Bush Doctrine. She looked good, didn’t have two heads and didn’t breathe fire and therefore was a success.

Likewise, the media — in particular the AP and Paul Krugman in the NYT — is starting to say that the McCain campaign is lying; not just exaggerating or distorting, but lying. O rly? No shit, Sherlock.

Anyway, every internet site I visit, whether “straight news” or left blog or right blog and even the polling sites are just hyperventilating. It’s all just too much and most of it is unreadable and over the top.

Well, I’ve had some “wake up” calls this week that have given me some perspective.

MCARP lost his buddy, Beasley the cat. If you read his blog, you can tell it hurts. My cat, Sinatra, is my friend, my companion, my solace and entertainment. Our pets mean something very personal to us. For him, it’s testing his fundamental non-attachment faiths and amounts to an internal emotional and spiritual crisis. We cannot judge. It’s his jihad, his struggle, his lonely path. MCARP, my friend, there are a great many of us who care about you and support you and finding out that you are not alone is a gift. For me personally, I am grateful that I do not face MCARP’s test because I’m not so sure I could do so with his grace.

Some of you know that I still go to AA meetings after 13 years of sobriety; I consider the two things inextricably tied, I’ve been abstinant because I still go to meetings. I learned this week that one of my friends in “the program”, someone who had 16 years of sobriety, someone who has had a liver transplant, is using again. I cannot judge. I understand. And, I’m so sad. I have my problems and they sometimes overwhelm me and I have drinking thoughts from time to time. So far, it has always seemed to me that I can remind myself that whatever my problems of the day, they will only get worse if I go back to drinking. I’m grateful that I don’t face that test because I know I could drink again but I don’t know that I could stop again.

My favorite aunt and uncle have recently faced the loss of their daughter to cancer. A mother of three, she was only in her 30s. It puts my problems of romance and finance into perspective — I can’t imagine their pain. By comparison, I read my daughter’s blog about her children and their activities and teacher and got in a good visit with my son, Jack, while he was here riding out Gustav. I have my problems, no doubt, but my problems are my size and that’s a blessing because I am not so sure I could face the problem of a parent whose child dies so young.

So, I take a pause from politics. How important is it compared to the real problems real people in my life are facing? Seems to me that politics is not important enough to get my knickers in a twist. I’ll try to remember that when I post again.

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