Peep and Peeps

Madame M,

I do the same thing. I lack the sensitivity and common sense to hide behind a book or magazine however, and I just observe. Some probably think it’s staring, so I guess I better watch it or I will end up on some creep alert list, lol.

Your story of the power outage is a testament to our search for balance. The connection is there, yet we lose most all sense of proportion and place and limits once electricity is restored.

Ah, I sense our expression on this topic winding down (at least for the moment). I have this idea. In this age of polarization, what if we do a book discussion of two books at the same time? I was thinking of Glenn Beck’s Common Sense and Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. While I understand that a number of people do not consider them artful or sufficient contrasts, enough do, and perhaps it might be instructive to discuss them together. In our polarized world, too many of us citizens read things written by only one “side,” with the other “side” dismissed with reading at best a few sentences or listening to a few sound bites (and even many of those come chosen by the opposing “side”). How is that going to increase understanding? Perhaps we could take a lesson from Adams and Jefferson. Rivals and political enemies can often be surprised they have things in common, but are even more surprised that those on the other side sometimes have worthy things to say and even some valid points. As we said in the beginning, perhaps we can contribute to some civil disagreeing! :)

Since I am the windbag of us two, and you are the mercifully appropriate word-length scriviner, would you like to start us off? I am thinking this is going to be a very long thread! :)