"Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone..." John Cougar Mellencamp, "Jack & Diane" circa '82
I used to sing the above lyric to the top of my lungs back in the early 80's, as my growing taste in music morphed from a steady dose of the heavily Motown, Philadelphia Soul, and Earth, Wind, & Fire selections that were mainstays in my parents' record player and 8-track deck (and Tallahassee's urban network, WANM), to an appreciation of the soft rock that was played throughout the day on Gulf-104 and the nascent TV network, MTV.
Being nine or ten years old at the time, I occasionally used to wonder at what point would I reach that age, you know, when the "thrill of living" would no longer exist?
Now, if you're thinking that I am heading into some macabre essay about death and dying, I am not—at least not today 😂. So by all means, please keep reading.
But to answer fourth grade Hobbs' philosophical ponderings, I can safely say that in my 51-year old version, I've reached the point in which one of my almost life-long thrills—my passion for all things political—isn't quite gone—but it is waning rapidly by the day…
About two years before Mellencamp's “Jack & Diane” ascended to Billboard's #1 spot, a then eight year old Hobbs fell HEAD over HEELS in love with the political process!
As both of my parents were avid news readers and watchers, I really had no choice but to become the same, as I watched the first two serious crises that I can remember, the 1979 energy crisis that yielded "odd" and "even" gas pumping days, and the Iran hostage crisis that had me legit scared that my father, a Vietnam veteran, would be heading back to war somewhere in the Middle East.
So when the 1980 presidential campaign season began, I sat each night at rapt attention as then President Jimmy Carter fought off a primary challenge from Sen. Edward Kennedy, while former California Gov. Ronald Reagan eventually defeated his future vice president, George H.W. Bush, for the Republican nod.
On election night 1980, my parents even let me stay up late with them to watch the results and while my sleep loving self (then and now) eventually nodded off, when I awoke I learned that Reagan would become the 40th President of the United States that following January 20th.
From that year until now, I have followed each and every presidential election with great interest, and ever since becoming a writer for the Morehouse Maroon Tiger Newspaper during my sophomore year in '91, I have used my column spaces to analyze the body politic in a way that makes sense to my readers and followers.
Thus, my lament (and confession) this morning that I AM TIRED, and for the first time since 1979 turned into 1980, I AM NOT enthused in the least bit about this year's presidential race!
Earlier this month, as I sat watching Florida Gov. Ron Desantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley act like two tempestuous toddlers during their last Iowa debate, I kept thinking how good and pleasant it would be to just shut off my television and crank up my C-Pap machine for a good night's sleep! I pushed through, though, because I love that my readers count on me for real analysis in real time ❤️!
Still, over the past few weeks, each time I have tried to read up on former President Donald Trump's policy offerings for a potential second term, my Google searches either reveal hundreds of articles chronicling one of his FOUR pending criminal trials, or, a snapshot of his latest verbal tirade against what he calls political "vermin"—the same language that was used time and time again by a young Adolf Hitler during his rise to power in the 1930's!
Not to be outdone, when I search Google to see how the Biden administration is touting its relatively strong economic record, whether it's the steady production of new homes that's always a sign of a growing economy, or, at last, the declining inflation that's slowly making bread, milk, cheese, and gas affordable again, I find more articles about Biden’s inability to quell the violence in Gaza that not only has left tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians dead by the acts of the Israeli Defense Forces supposedly on the hunt for Hamas, but threatens to become a much larger conflict in Yemen, Lebanon, or Iran—and potentially against Russia and China in the months ahead!
And so I am EXHAUSTED, not just by current events that are dire, but because they're also dour when considering that the political class that we entrust to make wise decisions often lack wisdom and discernment beyond what's in the best interest for themselves, whether it's policy, or whether it's making the choice to gracefully bow out and pass the baton to the neXt generation of political thinkers and doers, well, at least those who have greater maturity than the Desantis/Haley types.
Now, please do not mistake my confession of exhaustion as as sign that I'm giving up, because one of my favorite Pauline scriptures is Galatians 6:9, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Which leads me back to the book of Mellencamp; yes, life still goes on for Ol' Hobbs—long after the thrill of watching politics has gone!
But trust that I surely won't faint or quit writing during this political season, as one of my main sources of strength comes from my proverbial choir—those of you who ALSO think deeply in an era in which far too many of our fellow Americans have so much access to information—but so little concern about anything beyond life's trivialities 😢!
Lest we forget...
Please keep pushing!! We need your voice...
Yep. I completely understand. I listen and read various things and wonder, with everything going on, and the one simple danger we have in front of us, why they are choosing to focus on this issue or that? Where is the wisdom and discernment? If people can be led astray by repeating the same wrong message over and over and over, the other side needs to be doing a much better job on sharing the facts over and over and over. Side note: took our daughter to see John Cougar Mellencamp last year. GREAT concert. Memories for me.