The "Dog Days" of summer occur when the Dog Star rises and sets with the sun. It must be happening right now. Willa's journal entry for 7/11/96 was titled "Lazy and uninspired". Many of the daily journals that I regularly read are sporatic, not really daily anymore. And generally uninspired, I might add. Mine are a good example. Everyone that I've talked to lately sings the same song: no ambition. Zilch! Is this astrology? Or perhaps something more sinister... although what, after all, is more sinister than astrology? OK, I won't keep you guessing. Politics. At the peak, presidential politics. This is the untold story of how presidential politics affect our lives. Even those of us who attempt to ignore such things are drawn into the malarkey-filled malaise. I first noticed this phenomena shortly after the 4th of July. I thought that it was just a post-holiday letdown syndrome type of thing, but it seems to persist and even thrive. And, after all, the 4th of July isn't exactly xmas, now, is it? So what's there to be let down about. I set off to seek other causes, and the answer chilled me to the bone. Even in July. There are political tides. Every four years, it's kinda like the major tide. Everything is pulling on the same plane. The bullshit factor is very high, way past your knees. Every other year are the minor tides, and then there are the off-year elections, where the effects are minimal, and generally unnoticable. The effect of this on our daily lives should be nil. Most of us are not really affected by politics unless we just wanna be. And most of us don't, when we don't have an issue that we're interested in at the forefront. Forefront is an interesting word. In front of the front? How, then, can the dog days be tied to politics, you sneer. Well, they are, I sneer right back at you. Background music. Elevator music. Sentences that aren't sentences. Our very heartbeats. These things all set our moods, even though they aren't noticed. Factory workers do better, faster work when listening to Jazz or Mozart or Sousa. Rap music makes the soul fall apart and brings out the bad in people. Lullabys put people to sleep. Unstructured sentences grate on sensible people's nerves. And these are all things that we don't notice. Usually. However, the trained, sleuthful eye of the investigator of psychic phenomena will seek out the things ordinary mortals overlook. The daily news. Whether you get your news from TV or from the daily newspaper or off of the internet, politics is there. Even if you don't read it, you see the headlines. The inherent conflict of politics sets up an edge to your thinking...conflict, conflict, conflict. You know it's there. You try to ignore it. Conflict, conflict, conflict. You make fun of it. But there it is. Conflict, conflict, conflict! It's like a song that you can't quite remember the words for, but the tune stays in your head. Over and over and over, until you finally remember the words or die. Conflict, conflict, conflict. Even if you don't listen to, look at or read the news, everyone else that you come in contact with does. And their attitudes rub off on you. Conflict, conflict, conflict. The constant. Conflict. Is. Endemic. Minds are like machines. They think something, then they do something about it. Thought, action. Thought, action. Think. Act. Bim. Bam. Something gets done. The mind is the motor. The body is the drive train. The clutch is... in there somewhere. Between the mind and the body. Let's call it... the transmission. Automatic, usually. There is usually a little slippage between the motor and the transmission, to allow for retroaction. You know, you think you want to do something, you start to do something, you realize how incredibly stupid it is, and you stop before you really get started. The automatic transmission. A wonderful invention. Thank you. Back to...conflict, conflict, conflict. Deep down, your brain is constantly processing this conflict crap. Trying to make sense of it. Fruitlessly. But it keeps trying. And trying, and trying. Tying up more and more of your brain's processing power, until finally, the motor is doing nothing but trying to make sense of this bullshit. It has no time to tell the body to do anything. An interesting computer parallel. Windows 3.1. Multi-tasking in. Works for a while. Or just running constantly. Eventually, all the memory is used up. It just stops. But it slows down a lot first. You needed to be constantly alert for the signs, or you will get bit. Conflict, conflict, conflict. Memory conflict. Bullshit conflict. The brain is going full throttle. The body sits. There is no direction. Every direction is useless. There is no reason to move. Any direction is the wrong direction. Every motion is still-born. The opposite of inspiration. Despiration. Or maybe expiration. Probably expiration. Whatever. It keeps us from getting things done. AHA! You say. LAZY! But no. Not lazy. Who are you calling lazy, anyway? Who do you think you are, calling me lazy? You're just as involved in this as I am, y'know. Not procrastination, either. It's a whole 'nother thing. Dog days. That's what it is. All of the politicians are dogs. They all want you to pet them, and by god they'll bite you if you pet any other dog. Don't matter if you feed them or not, they'll bite you. They'll bite you when you're petting them if they think that you're even thinking about petting another dog. And they'll bite you on general principles, just 'cause they're dogs, and that's what dogs do. And don't think that this ends in September. Don't think it ends in November, either. We just start getting ready for the next time then...