Suspicions unfirmed

Sunrise, come wrap me in the warmth
Of your crimson sky
I spent a long time believin'
In a dream that had passed me by - - Eric Carmen

I read that Lindsey Vonn, the skier who was with Tiger "Tiger" Woods for a couple of years, recently dumped him, and her friends are saying that it was because she found out he cheated on her.  Woods has quite a record in both golf and in the other great spectator sport: infidelity.

It's none of my business what Tiger does with Little Tiger, but I'm thinking about how it must feel to believe in something or someone, as Lindsey must have believed he was being a faithful partner, only to find it was all an illusion, just like water running through one's hands.  What's that moment like, when the big epiphany hits you right in the proverbials?

Sure, I've been disillusioned, found out that people I once admired were not all that admirable, but it's never been someone or something I was totally into that turned out bad.  How did I get that lucky?  Well, I was very lucky to have fallen in love with the greatest woman in the world, one whose loyalty and love are beyond question, and that's just the angels working things out for me, as always.

Sinister UN invasion, or local commerce?

But, here's what I'm circling around here.  There are people in this country, people who live and breathe and work and play and shop and drive among us, people who believe that the president of the United States is in league with some sort of international cabal that has plans to invade Texas, and make federal prisoners of all Texans.

Even Willie Nelson will not be spared this ignominy, this awful hellish roundup, in their stories.

Texas...why?

It's all about this military exercise scheduled for the Southwest US from June through September.  Just Google "Texas UN invasion" or words to that effect, and sit back and watch insanity and inanity pour out of your screen like pancake batter.  I don't like to use psychological terms like "paranoia," since they refer to specific emotional conditions, but that's the common term we employ for people so bedeviled by fears and unreasonable suspicions that their lives become a web of worry and panic.

I once talked to a person on the phone, a man from the west side of the county.  He had called my office about a county service, and we had a nice, amicable discussion about how the county could help him and his neighbors.  At the close of the call, I told him I would call him back to let him know when to expect our plan of assistance, and I asked him if he had a cell phone I could use to reach him, in case he was out when I called.

"Oh, I wouldn't have one of those cell phones," he said. "You know, the police ride around the Beltway all day long with their car radios tuned in so they can hear everything you say on a cell phone, and then they can follow you and arrest you for what you're thinking."

Long pause.

He wasn't joking.  He meant it.

So I knew there are people who feel that their very lives and freedom are under imminent attack in these parlous times, and I suppose there always will be.

What I wonder about today is, how will these people feel on September 15, when the soldiers and National Guard people go back to where they came from, and the world keeps turning, and Texas was never invaded?  Is it like when one is in a dark room for a long time and then someone comes along and turns on a light?

Those UN trucks they're seeing on the highways in the Lone Star State are made in, and shipped to the UN for its international peacekeeping force, from Texas.

But one should never let a fact intrude on their darkness and flick on a light.