Secret Handshakes and Decoder Rings

With the failure of the august national legislative body to renew the Patriot Act we can focus our attention on other exclusive clubs.  I’m not referring to the Patriot Act as a club.  I speak of the club into which citizens are elected and then called “Honorable”.  Is it honorable to step across the threshold of ordinary and into the stratosphere of national politics and then use pressure, stature, power and influence to self-deal?  Politicians rightly or wrongly are called hacks, influence peddlers and crooks.  Sometimes it’s not vindication to be proven correct.  Dennis Hastert’s alleged illegal actions don’t mean he’s in the minority – it means he was dumb enough to get caught.

Hastert joins the club with growing membership – a club into which he initiated himself.  I’m sure he wishes he could unspool and respool – don’t you hate it when people who think they are above the law are made low by revelations?  This isn’t about corrupt politicians.  I could write tomes about such shocking but not unexpected eventualities.  I’m writing about exclusive clubs that discriminate against those who do not fit conjured up subjective standards and require supermajority votes of likeminded members who hold secret meetings and cloister themselves in expensive enclaves.  Ego inflation – most definitely.

I’m not into clubs with subjective exclusionary rules.  I never joined a country club.  This club was all about money and keeping out the riff raff (remember the cartoon character from Underdog?).  It wasn’t the money, it was the plastic surgery required in order for my nose to be appropriately hoisted as if I was breathing rarified air.  I would think twice about joining any club that would have me as a member.

Organizations that measure your monetary appendage or are based upon popularity are not for me.  I get the need for rules and regulations and for moral, emotional and physical discipline.  Furthering a cause by marshaling similar-minded people should be applauded and welcomed. I also support organizations (a/k/a clubs) that cast a wide circle of benefits.

Clubs that promote “I’m better than you” are a waste of precious human capital.  I advocate for altruistic purposes.  There are plenty of people who need direction, acceptance and support.  Creating “vanity” clubs make me wonder if the coiner of the seven capital vices missed one.

Don’t read my commentary as feeling offended. Au contrare, I am amused by those who perch themselves on the alabaster-colored pedestal that is mostly hot air and illusion.

Do good one deed at a time.  Don’t look for accolades and don’t formulate a divider between yourself and others like you. Don't kid yourself, we are much more similar than dissimilar.  If you disagree, tell me whether you pull on your pantyhose over your head or do you gather them and insert one leg at a time.  Satisfaction should be your reward.  Nurturing others and paving the pathway for others to follow makes you a hero.  Secret handshakes, decoder rings, pens and pins don’t make you better than the next person.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.  Live long and prosper my friends and members of the club we call life.

Love and hugs, Nikki