The Irvania Blog

We were chatting with friends the other week and the subject of the latest storm-ravaged portion of the world came up. Monsoon damage in Kansas or something like that, I don’t remember exactly. Hanna replied that she hadn’t heard anything about it and I explained that we don’t watch the news anymore, so we’re almost completely out of touch with current events.

“What do you guys do at home?” one of our friends asked.

“We listen to music a lot,” I said.  We usually have some form of music playing, either satellite radio or CDs. Every corner of our house has either a TV wired up to the satellite system or a music player of some sort. I even have a 26-year-old cassette player on my workbench for listening to tunes in the garage.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt enriched that Hanna and I have so much music in our lives. I remembered vague mutterings from people in the 1980’s who complained too many people had their TVs or stereos on all the time, as if they were trying to drown out the silence, as if they were afraid of the silence.

I don’t think that’s the case with Hanna and me. We sit outside for hours, listening to the birds and the squirrels and the sounds of the creek across the road. Even in the house we’ll have hours of silence, then Hanna will put on her favorite easy listening station or I’ll put some classical music in the CD player.

I don’t know if I can explain just how, or how much, the music enhances our lives. If you don’t like music, you wouldn’t understand anyway, and if you do like music you already know what I’m talking about.

Tell you what: load up Pat Metheny’s album Secret Story and go to the twelfth track, The Truth Will Always Be. (There’s a video of the song here on YouTube.)

If that doesn’t knock your socks off, I’ll just say that Hanna and I really like music, and leave it at that.

Okay, long-time readers of Irvania.com know that I usually stay away from politics in my online dialogues, but this time I just can’t keep quiet any longer. The state primary has come and gone, and not one of you voted for me. I am so disappointed.

Yeah, I know, I’m not actually running for any offices and I don’t represent any of the political parties and I don’t have an actual platform, but c’mon. Out of all the billions of voters in this state, not one of you could throw a vote my way? Is it really that hard to have a little consideration for my feelings once in a while? Sure, I have no qualifications and no experience as a political leader, but what difference should that make? I’m pretty sure I’m just as capable of running this country into the ground as any of the other yahoos running for office.

Okay, so my campaign slogan, “We’re all screwed,” hasn’t been very successful in garnering a lot of support from across the political spectrum. After working with some focus groups and spending some time with my marketing people, I’ve come up with a new campaign slogan that I think speaks to the heart of the average American: “We’re all really, totally screwed.”

The national elections are coming up in November, so keep me in mind when it comes time to sneak your way into the voting booth. Remember, a vote for Dave is one less vote for the other candidates!