Don’t you dare

sitting on that chair. It’s mine. I am entitled to my own opinion. It’s the American Way. The Only Way. Or the Highway.

You can grow hair. Or you can no longer. But Time goes one way, from Alpha to Infinity.

All in my family: the cast of characters, all were really old by the time I was born.

They fought over dinner, chasing each other around the retangular table. I just watched, speechless (couldn’t talk to begin with).

But I knew then, and I know now. Every family has Communication Crisis. In it, Opportunities for mutual respect and understanding. Can’t just pick up and leave.

Generational gap, ideological gap, culture wars…

Fight, fight, fight.

Depends on one’s temperament: high-strung or last-minute lash-out.

All the same.

Norman Learn turns 100. Producer of All in the Family. Prime time. Just sit on that chair, don’t bother to clear out your TV tray. America, deep Blue and Red. Long hair and shaved heads, bottom up and top down.

Even Meta gets reorg-ed. And Mark barely turns 38.

Such is the State of our world. Deal sizes now reach the tune of Billions (even Mega Millions sees its own inflationary values).

The gap is widened, and all the policy changes DJT has to offer Washington is to move the homeless into Tent cities (not Central Park, please…I couldn’t take the Central Park 5 let alone thousands). No apology – even after they were acquitted. Lock them up and move them to concentrated camps and contained clusters. De-gentrify the population. Easier that way. No metal detectors. I need the mob effect. Any publicity, negative notwithstanding, is good. Stay relevant, stay out front. Even a court case. Hyperbolic statement. Future statement. Sound bites. The press (vultures) will always eat it up from your hands.

Feed the narrative.

Let the world know there is only you. No dialogue, no prologue nor epilogue.

Just monologue.

Me, me, me.

I am the One. Will walk with you. Will be with you till the end of time.

Will be great. All in the family, American family (as if it’s been Central casting and command ever since).

Round them up: Jews in Hollywood and Japs in San Francisco. Go so far as rape (White woman) to propagate and germinate selective population growth.

To his WWII credits, Mr Lear said in his NYT piece on his 100th birthday, that true patriotism doesn’t equate with interfering with a peaceful transfer of power.

He knows a thing or two about all the arguments in the family. What are some of the boundaries, respects for the individual and his/her dignity, and of course, truth at times is found in differences and dialogue, not homogeneity.

When the older members of my family were still around, they often said things like “No choice”… At the time, I was still busy with career pursuit and material acquisition. I did not and could not relate to their silent cry: time is both short and long, depends on where you are at which stage of life. You may hold an opinion, fight to the death. Being stubborn or loud doesn’t make it right. It’s the hypothesis, the underlying assumptions and foundations of one’s thinking that matters. Logic aside.

Glad to be around to see the rise and rehash of old script. Like All in the Family. Pretending that it’s always been Great selective memory – and needs to be made great once more. It ain’t so, has never been.

Don’t you dare sit on that chair!