GObama. (Alternate Title: Obamalltheway)

The world can concurrently rejoice and breathe a sigh of relief. Obama was victorious. Twill be a new day in American politics many say. in America. in the world. His acceptance speech was moving. He is a brilliant orator. He opens his mouth and at once inspiration, hope, and imagination burst forth. 

I wonder how many people, particularly those across borders who have so brazenly hoisted him up on their proverbial shoulders, actually know what his policies are? I sure don't (and I count myself amongst the brazen). Maybe he is, as McCain and Palin tried to peg him, a socialist (not such a bad thing in these parts, really). Maybe he will, as John Stewart suggested, pull a bait and switch and enslave the white race. Maybe he is, more realistically, inexperienced and underprepared to play coxswain during the current mess that characterizes the United States. 

And maybe it's enough that he can inspire and uplift. God knows America needs that now more than anything. 

Patterns.

Rhythm. Cycles. of behaviour. of thought. of everything. of seasons. of music. of growth. 

We live and die by patterns. Everything our silly brain learns as we grow happens because of patterns. because of structure. because of repetition. If you give kid a structured home, he will learn and grow in healthy ways. We all implicitly know this. Monkey see, monkey do. You are what you eat. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. These are colloquial truths. Our brains are wired this way. Patterns make sense to us. and we see patterns in things. We look for them. They help us to understand things. to make sense of this world. to impose some order on it. to not get lost in it. 

It is bigger than us. The universe follows a pattern. Things spin on axes in predictable ways. things orbit other things. All human lives follow a shared pattern. There are experiences typical across cultures, boundaries, and beliefs. Milestones. Developmental milestones. Social ones. Experience of some sort. Work of some kind. Relationships. Copulation. Procreation. Death. There are patterns to the day. Waking. Pissing. Dressing. Eating. Doing. Eating. Shitting. Doing some more. Eating. Sleeping. Waking. There are patterns to the hour. to the minute. indeed to the second. 

When does a pattern (predictable, order, natural) become a rut (sucky, boring, soul destroying)?