Friday I showed the symptoms of a cold, and by Saturday I was sick enough to stay in bed all day. Sunday I was feeling a little better, but not much, and Monday I stayed home from work to recuperate further. Since the fall of 2006, I've had problems with Eustachian tube blockage. For the first time in my life, I had tubes put in my ears. I thought only kids needed those! The tubes, however, have to be replaced every 12 months or so. The last time I went to the otolaryngologist, I suggested not replacing one of the tubes, just to see if maybe my problem might miraculously disappear. No such luck!
My first otolaryngologist in Texas had me undergo an MRI just to make sure that no tumors were causing the Eustachian tube blockage. Everything appeared to be normal. I've come to see the problem as just another sign of aging. Things start breaking down. My hair is gray, my knees hurt, and my ears get stopped up every time I get a cold. So I've made another appointment with my otolaryngologist to have a tube re-inserted in my right ear. Until then, I'll walk around feeling woolly-headed. Fortunately, I don't usually suffer from dizziness with this problem; I'm just hard of hearing. The tinnitus in my ears is more obvious. Having a blocked ear makes me turn inward; the outside world is muffled, distant.
Maybe this isn't such a bad time to turn inward, away from the craziness of the presidential campaign. The rhetoric is heating up. I read of Sarah Palin's outrageous claims against Barack Obama ("He pals around with domestic terrorists!") and John McCain's increasingly negative attacks against his political opponent, and I wish the month away--the votes having been counted, Americans having decided who best represents their ideals, and my health once again restored.
Meanwhile, I'm with James Fallows on the presidential campaign, and I agree with the points my friend David Crisp has made recently in a couple of his posts. Read these recent posts:
- James Fallows, "Our Capacity for Self Government," posted 06 October 2008.
- James Fallows, "A Comment that Dumbfounds Me", posted 06 October 2008.
- David Crisp, "Debate Hash," posted 03 October 2008.
- David Crisp, "Bugged," posted 05 October 2008.
Oh, and read George Packer's blog, too: "The Parts of Her Speech," at The New Yorker. He hits the nail on the head here:
Palin’s candidacy is pure identity politics—a play for Christian conservatives, women, and anyone who resents the coastal big-city know-it-alls. The only verb that matters in identity politics is “to be.” What does Palin offer these voters? Herself. String along a chain of nouns in the form of politically symbolic platitudes—“Hockey Mom Pitbull Joe Six Pack Wasilla Main Street Reform Soccer Mom Every Day American People Maverick”—and you have practically the whole of her program, her policies, her world view. Palin’s self-infatuation is staggering: asked any question, she describes herself, again and again. It’s the opposite of empathy and identification with others. No one with a sharp, clear image in her head of a hard-pressed American would use a term like “Joe Six Pack,” an insulting cliché on the order of “the little people.”
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