The Odyssey Updated (Trump According to Homer)

Donald Trump has been on a journey unlike any other. Filled with low points and then lower ones. Stepping on toes, hell stepping on entire feet.

Giving new meaning to that 3 AM call. Putting this country on perpetual high alert, not in fear of enemy but our own President. Forcing the country to learn the particulars of the 25th Amendment.  Piling up mistakes, miscues, misstatements at a rate that staggered the imagination, boggled the mind and challenged our capacity to recall. The calamities myriad and the potential for catastrophe omnipresent.

From Pence to Putin, Perry to Papadopolous, Price to Priebus, Pruitt to Perdue, scary Bannon to Scaracmucci, Megyn Kelly to John McCain, Ben Carson to Betsy Devos, from the "hiring" of Kushner to the firing of Comey, from the injustice to Merrick Garland to the installation of Justice Gorsuch, from Ivanka with a little lust to immigrants with much hate, from Russia with love to North Korea with nukes, from shutting borders to closed minds, from grabbing pussy to grabbing attention, from the First Amendment to the Second, from the birther morass to the Mexican mess, from NATO to NAFTA, from both sides to blame in Charlottesville to warmest condolences in Vegas, from alternative facts to alternative energy, from destroying Obamacare to destroying the ozone, from attacks on the media to imagined attacks from most everywhere, from manufactured voter fraud to intended voter suppression, from fomenting fears to pandering to prejudices, from criticizing judges to castigating the FBI,from weekdays with Fox and Friends to weekends at Mar-A-Lago, from groveling sycophants to kneeling football players, from intimidation to insinuation, from twisted tweets to constant taunts, from broken pacts to broken promises, from small hands to large hysterics, from taxes to just plain taxing, from morning to night and siege to endless siege.

Always but a moment away from creating a self inflicted wound upon our nation. Lacking in attention, in diligence, in understanding, in empathy, in perspective, in the very words necessary to express himself. Self centered, obsessed, unbound by tradition, by regulation, by protocol or propriety. Willing to destroy our standing in the world and doing a wonderful job of it. Bitter, petty, divisive, petulant. Often  unmoored. Treating his office like a chew toy and peeing on the rug. From the first day he descended upon us like a plague to the latest tweet he left, like poo, on our front step. 

And all that does not come close to accurately describing the full extent of the damage this man has done and is capable of doing

And where can we turn for guidance  in our moment of deep distress if not to Homer? For nearly 3000 years past he wrote much on the travails that now lay before us. And much as we perceive Mr. Trump as unlike any other, Homer would remind us that everything new is old again:

"There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep."

" A hero is intelligent; his greatest weapon is his mind."

"And empty words are evil."

"Friend, that was not well spoken; you seem like one who is reckless; So it is that the gods do not bestow graces in all ways on men, neither in stature nor yet in brains or eloquence;less noted for beauty, but the gods puts comeliness on his words, and they who look toward him are filled with joy at the sight, and he speaks to them without faltering in winning modesty."

"Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth,nothing is bred weaker than man."

"Ah how shameless - the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say comes all their miseries, yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share."

"Greed and folly double the suffering in the lot of man."

"For never, never wicked man was wise."

"Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies: And sure he will: for wisdom never lies."

"Skepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of skepticism."

"For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.'

"Of the many things hidden from knowledge of man, nothing is more unintelligible than the human heart."

"By hook or by crook this peril too shall be something that we remember."

 

Where this Odyssey ends is anyone's guess, as we watch, wonder and worry.

But one final thought from Homer may provide a measure of  solace:

"Take courage, my heart, you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart. I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this."