I'm sure you've noticed that campaigns start early. (Joe Biden? 2020? Dude!) I'm sure you've also noticed that year-end top 10 lists proliferate in the media sooner than you'd care to see. In that spirit, I'd like to offer my top 10 incongruous thoughts of 2017.
By "top 10," I mean "10." By "incongruous," I mean "at least as clear as connecting the dots in order to superimpose animals and warriors on nebulous constellations." And by "2017," I mean that I haven't yet accredited these thoughts … temporally … as such.
I'll list them only once, so you probably should write them down as we go:
No. 1: Among immigrant populations generally, first generations struggle, still oriented to the old world. Second generations successfully straddle. Third generations fully assimilate. This strikes me as an undeniable historical pattern. Why would it change just because countries of origin have? Should this not put rooted Americans in a more welcoming mood? (Or, could they at least consider terrorism as the separate problem that it is?)
No. 2: Trying to learn a new language yourself — from vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation to idioms and shades of meaning — is a great equalizer.
No. 3: As a denizen of an urban area, I get around, variously, on a bike, in a car and on my feet. Can't I all just get along?
No. 4: Public transit — important as an environmental and community asset. But as a personal choice, at what cost to efficiency? Fifty minutes door to door by bus, compared with 15 by car? What would your threshold be? What would it take to change your equation?
No. 5: "If I had a million dollars … I'd be rich," sang a certain Canadian band with a name that feels more awkward than it used to. "If I had a 2.7-million-vote lead, I'd be a loser" doesn't seem to follow, tautologically.