Bobbing in the ripples

I recently heard the analogy of a rock thrown into a pond and the resulting ripples spreading their effects of that particular event in all directions, such that the future is affected by something that happened in the past. But the purveyor of this idea suggested ripples of events that have yet not happened, events of the future, also send out ripples in all directions which affect all of us here, in the present. I found the thought intriguing.

While few of us can foresee the future save for a small number of precognitively gifted, I wouldn't find surprising the idea that many of us unknowingly have the ability to sense the future's influence upon us now.

Unwittingly, living in the present, in the present, always in the present, we forever straddle that precise place where past and future collide. And perhaps because we are standing upon that very impact point, I sense an increasing degree of negative energy comprising the country's ethos in the present as well as our future.

Maybe it's just coincidence that Mrs. Dada and I each had a rare, yet horrific, nightmare a day or two apart just recently. Or maybe not. Maybe it's that sense of ripples from future events we're sensing?

Certainly, recent past events like 9/11, the resultant wars, and growing national debt weigh on the psyches of us all. The effects of rising oil/gas prices and the bursting housing bubble are ongoing events that will get worse. Several days before finally admitting his economy was in trouble, president Bush denied it was because of his wars.

"I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs…because we’re buying equipment, and people are working," Bush responded to a question by reporter Ann Curry. Because of the wars, Americans are busy building bombs and ordnance used to destroy shit much of which in the process itself gets destroyed, creating a need to replace/build more in an endless cycle of Bush prosperity for people fortunate enough to be engaged in America's death industries .

"This economy is down because we built too many houses," was the economist Bush's conclusion for his sagging economy. If anything, the war was helping it stay afloat he assured.

These are ripples from recent past events, just as daily news reveals more ripples like flying in jets with cracked fuselages for which the FAA and Southwest Airlines exchange finger pointing; or clinics reusing needles in Nevada, spreading hepatitis-C under the FDA's nose; or an excellent story about Remote Area Medical (RAM), an American relief organization originally created to airlift medical supplies and personnel into remote areas of the world but decided many uninsured and underinsured in desperate need of medical care exist right here in America, such that RAM spent a weekend in Knoxville, TN providing free healthcare to poor Americans but had to turn away about 1/4 of those who showed up, so overwhelming was the demand.

While these past events weigh heavily upon us, I am left wondering about ripples from the future contributing to the dreariness hanging over Americans that may have caused my and Mrs. Dada's recent nightmares. After 7+ years of Bush, the country is obviously being dismantled. By gross incompetence or by intention I can't say, but I have my suspicions and I suspect this past as well as the future may be contributing to American's growing sense of gloom.

Perhaps a war with Iran is among those signals in the ripples lapping at us from the future. News of Navy Admiral William Fallon's resignation as head of the military's Central Command (and chief antagonist of Bush's aggressive tactics towards Iran) was a necessity if the Iran war was to be successfully launched. Or perhaps not. Maybe this wasn't a ripple from the future if we're to accept Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' reassurance to us all that Fallon's resignation was no signal Bush is preparing to attack anew, again, in the Middle East. Maybe our dreams were just that. Simply nightmares of a future that won't happen.

Somehow, I'm not too self-assured.

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