Let me come clean.
That brief mental vacation I told you I was taking from this space nearly two months ago was a Trumpian-like figment of my imagination. Put another way, I lied.
Not wanting to overshare boring details of what seemed like a minor health matter, I borrowed a concept that frequently pops up on Facebook these days, something to the effect that: “I’m sick of all the politics and will take a break for a while.”
At the time, it seemed almost noble to be temporarily hobbled by the blathering punditry class and its inane obsession with spinning every ubiquitous blip into a narrative of doom. These political prognosticators declare the Biden presidency dead at least once week. They saw the less-than-elegant exit from Afghanistan as a fatal flaw. They are sure Biden’s inability to shutdown COVID in its tracks will ruin him, despite the fact that the biggest impediment to herd immunity is the MAGA crowd’s refusal to mask up and get vaccinated. Now they are warning that Biden will tarnish his image for all time by giving up on spending programs he campaigned on, all in order to get a compromise package through one of the most closely divided and divisive Congresses in recent history. Can you imagine what a dismal, chaotic mess the theatre world would be in if Shakespeare had treated every mundane action as an arc to the final act?
The truth is that I am a committed political junkie. Tortured journalism is annoying, but it’s not going to push me away from my daily fix. So I lied. My defense is one of mitigation. I refer you to that noted tome on prevarication, The Oxford Handbook of Lying, by Simone Dietz. Although my fib would be heavily sanctioned by the “absolute-moralist” faction of serious thinkers on this subject, there is a more utilitarian caucus that would spare me the gallows. This reformist movement notes that lies that are socially harmless or based on benevolent motives or consequences, fall short of evil. Obviously, Donald Trump never read the memo on this subject.
Here’s the real deal: I’ve dealt with respiratory issues for some time, mostly the result of collateral damage to my lungs from successful cancer surgery and radiation 10 years ago. It was all quite manageable until this summer when my symptoms worsened. I was scheduled for a mind-boggling round of appointments within the ever-expanding universe of Johns Hopkins Medicine. I thought it best to let the blog go dark for a bit in order to focus on my medical adventure. I figured I’d be back on the keyboard by mid-September.
Well, the best laid plans and all of that stuff. It turns out that I have a rare and stubborn lung infection known as Mycobacterium Avium Complex, MAC for short. The treatment consists of four heavy duty antibiotics, one of them administered intravenously. I’m told that it could take several months to eradicate the bacteria. Once that happens, I will continue taking at least some of the antibiotics for as long as another year, to guard against a return of the offending organisms.
I have so missed researching and writing this blog. I didn’t realize how important it was to me until I took my so-called break. Unlike many retirees, I neither build nor fix things. I don’t like crossword or jigsaw puzzles. I’ve never had much interest in sports. But reading the news, thinking about issues, and trying to figure out what it all means has kept me fairly sane these past five years. Unfortunately, the side effects of my antibiotics have made it far more difficult to sort it all out. A cognitive haze has definitely settled in. My doctors tell me that it will likely lift once my body becomes accustomed to the antibiotic regimen.
So there you have it, as the TV news folks like to say. My story is neither compelling nor poignant; neither riveting nor amusing. In fact, it’s not even interesting.
But I can assure you of this: It is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
You can also believe me when I say, I look forward to returning to this space as soon as the medicinal cobwebs leave my prefrontal cortex.
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