Conrad Memories from the Future

Sales and politics have many nuances and definitions, but for the purposes of today's topic, I narrow them to these two definition from Merriam Webster: Sales : the development of a belief in the truth , value, or desirability of: gaining acceptance of. Politics : the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy. So, politics is really a specialized, focused type of sales.  A politician is a developer of belief in the value or desirability of a governmental policy and a developer of the belief in the truth of his/her supported positions to the public, to his/her constituents.  So, that obviously being fair, how could such a system ever go wrong!? The rub comes when the belief in truth isn't actually the full factual truth.  If I convince you to buy a used car from me by convincing you to believe that the engine is in perfect condition with at least 100.000 miles left in its life, it does you no good if, after paying a reasonable price for a car in th

 I'm retired.  Newly retired. Not that anyone is counting, but I've been retired for ... ... approximately. Breaktime?  You know how it is when you are new at something and trying to build a new psychological infrastructure.  It is amateur hour for a while.  You're used to having markers and mileposts indicating flow and directionality.  You go to work on these days.  You go to your mother-in-law's house to care for her on the weekends.  Your wife comes home at a certain time from her work. What happens when those markers and mileposts are removed, erased?  You retire.  Your mother-in-law has a heart attack that very day and your are now staying with your wife at her mother's mobile home while you shepherd her through rehab and relocation to a care facility.  And now you settle in to all those hobbies and things you never had the time to develop. And a novel coronavirus appears and it seems like it is causing local trouble in China.  Then it starts seeming like it i

We've all felt something just beyond our reach, something we almost saw, an impression that seemed to come from nowhere.  Is someone there?  Hello?  And, isn't it interesting how much more intense that gets when the sun has set and we are alone!  We are alone, aren't we??? The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary  identifies  midnight  as the time when witches are supposedly active.  This is popularly known as the witching hour!  Supposedly, this is when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest, when the bleedthroughs are common, when spirits can migrate and shadows can be cast.  It is the time of magic! On the calendar, it is the death of one day, the birth of a new one.  Sometimes the opposite of the birth of magic, it can be the loss just as well, the coach reverting to a pumpkin, the horses to mice.  Fortunately, some things like glass slippers seem to survive the transition, although the magic that allows you to dance in them without destroying your feet must surely dimini