Cleaning Out The Dirty Old Year

Got a few things to clear out before 2008 hits:

1. Last election's results gave me tenfold the previous number of votes. Whilst I wasn't elected (at least they haven't asked me to City Council), I DO thank all 200+ who voted for me. The reason I take your nod so seriously is that I wasn't just a knee-jerk vote. Since I didn't spend one dime on posters, placards, handbills, or other falderall, every single one of you learned of me by word of mouth, and gave rapt consideration about how I would serve you. My reputation was apparently enough to vote tenfold your confidence in my works and credibility. One and all, I consider your expression a high honor. Thank you. I'll win next time.


2. Speaking of honor, for the second time in four years I've now closely witnessed and had to deal with complete dishonor. Around a deep woods campfire this story would make your skin crawl-- and no less dramatic were days spent working with this creature.

This fellow had been employed at the advertising agency, and from the start acted as if evil incarnate. His one-note recommendations to sell all products were to create "booty billboards," his way of suffusing sex and pornography into every meeting. My partner gave him a chance, but like the scorpion who cannot help but acting like a scorpion, he reverted to his black heart.

But the joke's on him: Though this cretin slurked away one day, immediately reaching out to steal clients, utilize our vendors, actually taking physical documents (and computer hardware), we'd already taken massive steps to contain him. We knew he was on a course of self-destruction and we were not going to be collaterally damaged. So wherever he turned the steel doors of containment had already clanged closed. With the parade of evidence from every sphere and possible gathering method, our upcoming day in court will be most satisfying. He has no idea how completely and utterly his life will be changed. I anticipate he will again run as he has before run from his past, changing his name as he flees, but we have him.

Most pitiable is that everyone attests to what he apparently cannot see: He vibrates on such a low and sinister wavelength that his life is already over. He trails his scummy reputation and his dishonorable thinking, and every act spreads the word. In this day and age, he cannot escape the spread of warnings about him on the Internet. It's a new world.

But he has no one to blame but himself. While working with the agency, people gave him a chance. I know I did. I gave him every chance. I kept hoping he was taking the opportunity to pull out of his personal nose-dive. But he invariably engendered such bad feelings that people shut him down when came in on his own. They reviled him. No one wished to associate with him-- excepting one or two of the same mind who enjoy that kind of "booty billboard" darkness. Most treacherous is how he presents a lightness of being-- promising the world as all the while chatty and smiling to allay the blackness permeating his soul-- trapping, if possible, those unaware of the tarbaby he is, until he steals from them whatever he can get: Equipment, relationships, connections, things, or whatever else. So he hops from one sucker to the next, draining them of valuables.

The bottom line, though, is that anyone listening to their own 'gut feeling' would know his laughter and smiles hide a truly sinister heart; one that would (and apparently will) do them harm. It's just a matter of time.


3. And the same goes for any other damnable people, such as abusers of children, or those who terrorize the elderly. Not too long ago I encountered such a "man" who, when the police escorted him away, screamed such horrible things at his widowed mother that the police said, as recorded on video tape, "I've never encountered such foul words said by a son to a parent." He lives in a similar blackness of spirit and brings no joy-- except to depart. There are "dirty old men" and there evil old men... How tragic to reach over 70 years of age, and still foment such evil within.

Good riddance, we all say: For evil to triumph it is necessary for good men to do nothing.

I keep the Cross close in my life, and will testify against them when the time is right. In the meantime, as over 200 local people recognized when voting for the strength of my reputation, yes, I'm working on perfecting myself, yes, but more important, I'm working on keeping out the darkness that sometimes surrounds us. I don't like darkness to any degree, and fight it at every turn.

So at this turn, clean out the darkness and dross from 2007 to make a stronger and more pure 2008.

Cheers!