September 30, 2008
Preconditions
Recovering from the “debate” last Friday night, I asked CP whether our conversations ever have any preconditions. She’d been watching a Cubs game and wasn’t all that sure what I had in mind. I briefed her, and she said all our conversations have preconditions. She added, How long since you’ve read the marriage liturgy either to yourself or to some helpless couple standing there before you?
Oh, I said.
Well, I continued, the presidential wannabes can’t seem to agree about whether they should even have conversations with their international counterparts at all, let alone without preconditions and preparations. They can’t even agree which is which, or whether they’re the same thing. One of them thinks that for a president even to talk to somebody, especially our enemies, automatically elevates the meeting into some kind of gold-plated Valhalla the bad guys don’t deserve.
Granted, I continued, our conversations have preconditions, but they never seem to have any preparation. They’re just more or less spontaneous. We just start off willy-nilly as if we always know what we’re talking about. My people never have a chance to make any plans with your people. (She didn’t get any of my intended humor in that.)
Yes, she said, and that’s usually how it ends, as well. Like now.
And as for that Valhalla thing, you never seem to appreciate…
I didn’t hear the rest of whatever she said, for by that time I was already in the next room, preparing.
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos