Local Politics

We can’t escape politics, and

We can’t do politics with grace and aplomb.

At the political meetings our vision of right order clashes

With the visions of everyone in the room.

Our self-interest clouds judgment,

Befuddles memory,

Incites selfishness.

Not only the normal self-interest that is our preoccupation,

But that vicious self-interest which convinces us

That our good is aligned with the good of the whole.

We must do politics, but

We must do it in the mix of mist and fog

That is our conscious life.

--September 4, 2013