Had I been as enamored by Alice’s adventures in Wonderland as I was by Dorothy’s adventures in Oz, talking about falling down the rabbit hole would make more sense, but considering that for the last couple of years nothing makes sense, why should I be concerned about making sense.
Had Dorothy happened to have fallen down a rabbit hole as she traveled along the Yellow Brick Road, I contend she would have bypassed the Cheshire Cat and wandered into the paint by numbers room, the very place most of us have either visited, lived in, or still live in.
The paint by number room (PBN) is the place where we are obligated to complete a painting, not of our own design, but one we were given, or I should say, inherited. At some point in our lives, usually when we were young and very impressionable, we were told life was like a canvas and we were free to paint it.
That was a lie. We mistakenly believed we were given a blank canvas. We also believed we were free to paint it according to our whims and heart’s desires. Little did we know that the painting of our life had been prepared for us down to the smallest details. Each little space was given a number that corresponded to a color. All we had to do was paint by numbers.
When the world was simple and the rules of life were less complicated (but still very rigid), many of us had no problem with PBN. The world was really never as simple as we once believed, we were just more compliant. We were rule-followers deluxe.
The world hasn’t changed a lot. We’ve changed. We are not as compliant as we once were. We don’t want to PBN and those of us who have children and grandchildren don’t want to see them obligated to PBN.
The problem is we believe we have given our children/grandchildren a blank canvas. That is also a lie. In fact, while we have deluded ourselves into thinking there are no PBN’s, there are hundreds of different PBNs that go by brand names, such as democrat, republican, Catholic, gay, anti-gay, conservative, liberal, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, and on and on.
People who are painting a democrat PBN think their work deserves to be hanging in a museum, while people who are filling in red on a republican PBN believe their painting is the right and only painting.
The current Supreme Court Justice hearing in DC is a perfect example of the horrors of PBN. Democrats are using one PBN and Republicans are using another. Liberal or left-leaning commentators are proudly showing the world what the Supreme Court pick looks like and what the Court will look like with Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Justice. Needless to say, the painting the Republicans are holding up to the world looks a hell of a lot different.
The problem with any PBN is the finished picture is actually finished before you add the first drop of paint. The Democrat Party PBN is not about why Ketanji Brown Jackson is good for ALL AMERICANS, but all about how she is right because she will be the first black female Justice in history (and of course it goes WITHOUT question…in their PBN, that she is qualified beyond distinction). The Republican Party PBN doesn’t leave any room for painting outside the lines. Their painting is all about why she shouldn’t be appointed to the Supreme Court (and of course it goes WITHOUT question…in their PBN that she has made too many bad judicial choices in the past.)
What we are witnessing is not Paint by numbers, but HATE BY NUMBERS!
The hatred evidenced in the SC hearing is just one example of the hatred that exists on far too many levels in life today. If that isn’t enough we are all subjected to hate-filled PBN classes in the media. And we all seem to only attend those classes who are working on the same PBN that we are.
News alert. I don’t care what party you might belong to, neither of them is always right or always wrong. We are all hearing too much hate-filled rhetoric. We have lost the ability to listen with open ears, not ears stuffed with preconceived beliefs.
I think the word of the day should be: WAIT. Wait, let them speak. Wait, let’s hear them out. Wait, maybe we can work it out without destroying the world.
It’s time to tear out a blank page from the pad and draw together. It’s the only way we’ll get out of the rabbit hole.
(I never liked PBN. I got many a one for a birthday or Christmas, but I never, ever completed one.)
Note: for the curious among us, the word “draw” is interesting because while it means one thing in one situation, it has a different meaning in another. “Draw together.” It has more than one meaning.
Along The Yellow Brick Road 