After our 0530 jump-start spin session this fine last day of August, I had a chance to get caught up with an old friend. To say that we shared a cuppa Joe nails both the what and who.
My friend Joe has worked on the hill in DC since the Reagan years. He is prolific in politics, history, business and reform. He has also lost 55 pounds since we first met. a few years ago.
We talked a lot of politics this morning, a little on the issues but more on the candidates. He was in full-on debate mode so I fed him with honest questions to keep his big motor running.
It was fascinating. From tales of the voyage of the St. Louis, his parents' pilgrimage from the Ukraine, his work with Carter, Nixon and Clinton to his opinion on the state of the state (embarrassing), my only responsibility was to keep his cup full and my mind open.
I kept suggesting that the modern world is rife with complex issues, and that sometimes one needs to pick the lesser evils, consider the greater good, or simply protect the needs of the many.
He was surprised at my fence squatting. I never took you for a casualty of these wars, he said looking through me with piercing eyes.
It's not true?
Of course its true but to throw up your hands and declare that there is nothing we can do about it, is exactly what they want you to do. They win and you lose.
OK, I get that, so what DO we do then?
We ask two questions.
I encouraged his elaboration of questions with the obvious one of my own.
Which two?
What and How.
I resisted the temptation to play the fool and ask, what and how what, so I took a sip of percolated mud and waited.
What do we need to do? And how do we do it?
There is a touch of paradox there.
Only if you're in the middle.
Pause.
More coffee?
Sure.
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