Drawing, dreaming, voting

Also see Conrad Black on the subject matter:  http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/conrad-black-donald-trump-knows-how-to-make-a-deal

Honestly,  who can stay out of the theatrics that make up American politics?

What a more painful procedure could be devised?  It reminds me of the "dialectics" with a liberal I have been through.  And yet, somehow, America remains the land of the free, or does it?

One's response to it all, could truly be to bury one's heads in the coloring books.  I don't blame anyone for finding their relaxation in innocent activities.

And still, the coloring books seem like a retreat--a retreat from reading, thinking, researching, collaborating, working, working-through.  Part of me blames it on the Yoga-revolution (again, nothing against stretching and breathing--I have tried it;  it does me good.)  The Buddhist/ mindfulness meditation techniques are good for zoning out and regrouping or even marshaling your resources, but in themselves they don't deploy any energies into useful directions.  They are therapeutic and reactive in a sense, not productive or pro-active.  When we think that mindfulness in itself is going to fix the world or my need or my neighbor's need via whatever conceived cosmic convergence notion, we are taking the easy way out.

I am little too young to have been a Hippie, and in any case, in Germany that movement sort of passed us by completely.  When I was young, there was an art project competition our teacher entered us in:  make a poster with the title "Don't dream.  Do something."

Some people have tried to turn this around.  "Don't just do something.  Dream!  Think!"

I suppose, we need both, and most false dichotomies collapse.  So maybe you can even draw a mandala and then go out and vote for Trump.  Whatever.  Try to think while you color.