It’s Saturday morning. I retrieve the newspapers, all three of them. The local fish wrapper, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Balanced perspectives are important.
I know what you’re thinking, no one can reconcile such disparate opinions into a cohesive consensus of what’s important today. It’s like trying to get harmony from the inpatients of an insane asylum. You’d have to be nuts to try.
But judging from the sheer number of words contained in these papers, one thing is clear: something’s important. Maybe not the same thing, but there’s something bugging a lot of people and they’re anxious to share their opinions with whomever will read them.
I ignore the bulk of newsprint and turn my attention to what’s really important to me at the moment. That would be breaking an egg on the side of the frying pan, gently, no shells in the pan, and taking pains to keep the tender yolk from breaking.
Broken yolks make for a bad egg breakfast. I consider the effort analogous to breaking the yoke of someone’s important opinion. I take pains with the cracking of the egg, but to be honest, it gives pleasure to break the yolk of some journalist’s opinion of what’s important.
Besides, caution is advised before swallowing someone else’s half-baked opinion. Nobody sees the whole truth, just shards of the whole, despite all the surveys, polls and scientific findings used to give credence to opinions. I glance at the stack of newspapers and envision volumes of half-cooked yolks littered with shells.
But outside of my house, someone has found something important to them. They’re pumping air into the bike tires for a morning ride. Symbolism is everywhere, just look around. For example consider today’s news … nothing but air pumped into something that goes round and round.
Such are opinions. Like bike tires, they cover a lot of ground, spinning round and round, stirring up dust and shedding some off along the way. And in due time, same as bike tires, they come home to roost, resting quietly where they began or in a dusty repository of has-been archives.
They’ve traveled far and wide, but really, what have they accomplished? Not much more than providing some exercise and enjoyment as the world passes by and life goes on. Such are opinions…they make the rounds, but sooner or later lose their momentum, their now-mute voices having once been fodder for discussion, or for entertainment or for sheer comedy.
One thing is common to both bike tires and opinions. If they sit long enough their air oozes out and they end up flat again. How many deflated opinions lay lifeless in the dust bin of disinterest or irrelevance, ideas and opinions that once held great promise, brimming with life and light, only to have flamed out in obsolescence and in the dead air of entropy?
Over in the corner our dog, Mr. Bogey, is ransacking his basket of toys, looking for today’s important play-pretty to occupy his time. He chooses a gray teddy bear whose ears are chewed off, its arms missing and its stitched-on thread smile hanging loosely, giving the ragdoll bear a look of utmost resignation.
What’s important is not necessarily measured by size, or value, or maybe even utility or need. It can be as profound as issues of health or finances, or as soulful as a mockingbird’s morning serenade. There are no rules to what’s important to us at any given time. And who are we to judge what’s important to anyone else?
Ah, the condescending voice of a philosophic cynic someone says. Not so. I have great respect for all journalists who’re willing to lay naked their thoughts and opinions, risking harsh critique or absolute public malignity and utter disgrace. It takes fortitude and guts to publish an opinion, from simple letters to the editor to profound treatises on the anything, controversial or otherwise. Still, I just reserve my right to accept or reject their opinions.
My egg is now done. Not a perfect yolk but acceptable. Not too runny, not too hard in the center. Ok, so the edges are a bit crusty, such are the edges of many opinions. Sometimes it takes a crusty edge to goad us into forming our own ideas of what’s important.
Whatever is important to you today, enjoy it. Good luck cooking up your own yokes but remember…no yolk is perfect.
Bud Hearn
April 3, 2019