All wound up
Watching the Oscars the other night, an advertisement came on that was charming, sexy, lovely to see. "Women are different," the ad was saying, "They have different needs," it went on as subconsciously our heads nodded in agreement, "They need a different drink," and then came the clincher, "They need Tab." We looked at one another and laughed.
Remember Tab? It was one of the first diet drinks for weight-conscious women and here it was again, resurrected for the next generation, only this time it's pretty in pink. We were being sold an old thing in a new wrapper. And then I wondered, how often are we sold something? Sometimes it is only a product and sometimes it is a point of view that we swallow, hook, line, and sinker.
One of the culture shocks that we experienced moving from California to Kansas was the way people thought — much more conservative than we were accustomed to. The great thing about the big cities is that you have people from all walks of life, all nationalities, all political viewpoints, and you learn to get along. You learn to accept there is more than one way — your point of view is enlarged.
I went to a dinner meeting last night where I was expecting someone to entertain and probably talk about the love of our country and our country way of life. Instead, I came home all wound up.
I walked in the door and Tooltime Tim was waiting. We had some things to do but instead I paced the floor — ranting. I was really wound up! Triple T watched in bemused silence. He hadn't even asked, "So how was it?" He didn't have a chance. By contrast, I've never seen Tim wound up. I've seen him mad. I've heard him spout off. I've seen him bone tired, discouraged, excited, anxious, worried, impatient, patient, blue, happy, testy, discontented, hopeful — never wound up. It isn't that he doesn't care deeply — although on the surface you could make that assumption — it's just that he figures it's nobody's business one way or another. On the other hand, I care deeply and I want to discuss it.
"You can't believe what I just had to sit and listen to," I spouted. "It was worse than listening to a zealous preacher spewing fire and brimstone," I fumed. "His generalizations were so sweeping, misinformed, and just plain wrong that I didn't know whether to stand up and challenge him or just walk out." I threw up my hands and paced the floor while Triple T leaned his elbow on his knee settling in for the long haul.
This speaker was so concerned about the preservation of the beef industry that he was attempting to convince his audience that our college-aged children are being brainwashed into considering vegetarianism because of animal rights. Really?
He was assuming that animal rights would lead to it becoming illegal to harvest livestock which would then mean we'd lose a way of life and there would be no more farmers. Really?
He was worried that we were raising a generation of children who didn't know John Wayne. Really? Is that crucial?
He was sure that movies like "Bambi" or "Saving Nemo" would subliminally tell children they didn't need a mother. Really? The speaker spent an hour talking about everything from homosexuality to breast implants — meanwhile leaving on the screen behind him a picture of cleavage that would assure red-blooded American males had their eyes up front. He worked diligently to polarize his audience into one way of thinking — his way — and the longer I sat, the more I got wound up.
Folks around me seemed to be listening attentively. Were they believing all of this? They clapped at the end of his speech. Were they just being polite? Meanwhile, back at the ranch (so to speak), I got all wound up over someone attempting to polarize my country neighbors. I got wound up over being subjected to another load of misinformation in the form of entertainment — worse than watching TV. Bottom line, I'm probably wound up over the realization that I don't fit in, even though I'm wearing cowboy boots.
It's another day in the country and I'm hoping that at least 200 cattlemen also went home all wound up. I hope they turned to their buddy in the front seat of the pickup and said, "Was this guy right?" I hope it stirred them up enough to challenge, to ask questions, to investigate.
