It’s difficult for me, (although I’m hopelessly romantic), to not focus a cynical eye on today’s Hallmark©-ambushed “holiday”.  Using both eyes to take in the bubbling magma that is 21st Century ideological enterprise, it is no wonder that we are adrift in a sea of tea bags.

We have universally forgone substance for ultimately less satisfying, yet easier to digest alternatives and we are fast approaching, (if we have not already arrived), an historical tipping point.  We are surrounded by talking heads claiming journalistic integrity, while merely regurgitating data provided by dubiously-qualified and sensationally-motivated minions using Google© as their bible and Wikipedia© for corroboration, (fist-pounding politicians being not quite so thorough).  The clergy, representing the thousands of world religions, (all of which somehow represent the word of the one true God…or Gods as the case might be), are the massively hysterical manifestation of the McLuhan message/media paradigm.  Most televised entertainment is now being labeled “reality TV”, when in actuality, being on TV is the only real thing about it.  Companies manufacture too many inferior products based on investment/return formulae that have little regard for their value to or impact on society.  And…everything seems to revolve around the randomly fickle up and down values of the DOW and it’s sister market indicators, when, in fact, those indicators are the least substantive of all.

Hey, I love a yummy potato latke as much as the next guy and I can always get it up for a hotly contested Easter egg hunt, (although none of my Christian brothers has ever been able to satisfactorily link the chocolate egg/resurrection connection for me), but Sarah Palin as a spokesperson for…anything, Pepsi© uniting the planet, Toyota making cars that…stop?  Are you kidding me?

I’d go on, but I have to find some crayons, glue and construction paper to make some heart and arrow representations so that the people I love will know it.  Oh, and something about bon bons.