When Christ was crucified, we are told in Matthew 27 that the curtain was torn from top to bottom, revealing the Holy of Holies to all those present. What does this mean? It means that the barrier between us and God had been eliminated, as we now had clear and unobstructed access to God through the person of Jesus Christ. And to what did we gain access? We gained access to truth. Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes unto the Father, but by Me”.
Throughout history curtains have been used as symbols of the barriers between us and the truth. In the movie “The Wizard of Oz” who can forget the little dog Toto pulling back the curtain in the great hall , exposing the truth behind the Great and Powerful Oz? We are living today in a world full of metaphorical curtains obscuring the truth, and if you even suggest the existence of the curtains, or worse, acknowledge that you are aware of them, you are likely to find yourself marginalized. This has not been an issue for me, as throughout my life I have counted on curtains to conceal ugly truths. A nice brocade was always more attractive than the view that lay beyond.
A month ago I was happily claiming to be a cancer survivor. Today I still make the claim, but it is with the awareness that survival is a process, not a momentary accomplishment. All the while I was claiming to be a survivor, I was aware of some changes that, in hindsight, could be indicative of a resurgence of cancer. I cracked open the curtains and reported these to my HMO and they did tests, but they were not testing in context of my prior cancer, but instead were testing as though these symptoms were appearing in someone with no prior medical history. I was okay with this, because the brocade was comforting. It was only when I pressed for the testing that would indicate if my cancer had returned that the trajectory of my survival changed. Why did the HMO perform so poorly? I was warned for years that my HMO had a history of doing everything right, but not doing it fast enough. When your house is on fire, putting the flames out should be a higher priority than testing for causes and debating strategies for extinguishing the conflagration. Why didn’t I act sooner? My family has had the tradition of hoping for the best and ignoring the rest – hanging curtains. That tradition may be contributory to the fact that so many of them are no longer above ground.
I share this because this mindset appears to be prevalent in our society today. We have now had seven months of an administration the actions and inactions of which have systematically devastated every aspect of our nation.
- Border in shambles.
- Covid pandemic continuing.
- Freedoms being eroded.
- Abandonment of friends and allies.
- Rampant inflation.
- Stunning deficits.
Whether you acknowledge all of these or any of them, it is indicative of having elected a president who is cognitively impaired and who, in his most lucid moments, is making decisions that reflect limited comprehension and understanding. My HMO could assess his current competency, but we wouldn’t learn the results until he was overtly slack-jawed and drooling in public. But in truth, we don’t want to know the truth. Curtains are so much more reassuring. I’m sure there is someone back there who knows what they’re doing. There are too many of us invested through our arguments or our votes who do not want an assessment of the emperor’s new wardrobe, and we will challenge and shout down anyone who speculates regarding the truth. You’re not a doctor! You’re not a tailor!
The time has come, though, where the consequences of our denial have become too great. The curtain has been torn asunder. Innocent people whose only mistake was to trust us are being slaughtered. Those who actively concealed the president’s decline are actively trying to distract and obfuscate, but as we see desperate innocents falling to their death from our aircraft as we execute a humiliating and unplanned retreat, we can no longer retreat from the reality before our eyes.
At least we can console ourselves that we have an able and competent vice-president waiting in the wings. Wait – Isn’t she the same person who advanced her career by engaging in an extramarital affair with the notorious Willie Brown in California? Old news. No way to assess whether her relationship was based on either affection or avarice. And although she helped Willie violate his vows, they weren’t hers. Wait – Isn’t she the same person who prosecuted minor marijuana offenders in California until it was no longer fashionable? Isn’t she the failed presidential candidate whose principles have been consistently shaped by results of the current polls? Isn’t she the one who has been an abject failure as vice-president?
Someone bring us a curtain! We are left between a rock and a hard place; forced to choose between the decrepit and the cretinous. How did we come to be here? Well, the election of 2020 was the fulcrum. We had an incumbent president we were told was a tyrant, a racist, a would-be Hitler. On the other side we had good-old Joe. The media assiduously managed the message, lest the success of the former and the corruption of the latter would come to light and possibly result in a fair election. No Russians needed, as the tech oligarchs in our own country were colluding to control the outcome. As votes were counted, there was a pause after which the Rosie Ruiz of electoral candidates then suddenly seized the lead.
Was the election stolen? There are certainly anomalies that raise questions, but the HMO, pardon me, DOJ was in no hurry to investigate. What would be the reaction if it was discovered that the tech giants in tandem with either our intelligence community or the Chinese Communist Party had placed their thumbs on the scale? The truth would be too ugly, too reflective of government failures. This is why you can speculate with wild abandon on social media about fake moon landings, assassination conspiracies, international organizations in the shadows pulling the levers of power. However, speculate about the 2020 election and you will be shut down. Not only will you be banished from social media, you will likely be placed on a list of potential domestic terrorists.
There must be some truth in the speculation if our government and tech oligarchs (are they different?) are so invested in suppression. I didn’t invest much in the speculation, since we have had stolen elections before and, once stolen, they tend to stay stolen. But I find my hope for the best, ignore the rest mindset no longer serves me or our country writ large. It’s time to tear down the curtain. It’s time for investigation, examination, and review, as we cannot allow this cancer on our nation to metastasize. I continue to take comfort, though, that in all things we are under the umbrella of God’s will. I am confident and grateful that His will shall be done.
In a dry and thirsty land 