Dear friends,
I know I left you all hanging (figuratively speaking, I hope) last week, waiting for my plumber to show up on a Saturday night. By midnight of that night, I did believe the problem was solved, but as the rosy-fingered dawn rises above the hills this not-as-chilly-as-yesterday Monday morning I'm sorry to say: it isn't. No, no. This home was constructed with duct tape and chewing gum, and its fragile systems no longer allow the mere flushing of a toilet. A septic rescue company is on its way, so perhaps by the time I return home from work all will be well, but in the meantime I've been forced to think about the power of metaphors.
Because what trope uglier or more apt can there be for—well, for oh so many things—than a failed septic system?
Consider. We do laundry. We wash dishes. We shit. We send our filth down the drain and never consider where it goes. Until the day it regurgitates itself back up our very drains.
I told you this was ugly. But a metaphor?
What else have I been trying to flush away? Deferred ambitions? Unfinished work? Remembrance of things past? Have I tried to hold my—excuse the expression—shit together with duct tape and chewing gum? The seepage will come home to roost, and when it does, it can no longer be forgotten, much less ignored.
Have you been paying attention? Have you seen the news? How many bodies were discovered in Iraq this weekend? How many half-truths and outright lies did our leaders attempt to spin (clockwise, in this northern hemisphere, down the bowl)? Was blame assigned to the appropriate sources? Do you know who installed the pump? Is the sewage flowing to the leach field through which it can properly filter and drain?
I know of but one septic repair for the policies clogging our nation. In three weeks and a day there will be an election. Are you registered to vote? Do you recognize the clean water from the foul?
You think know where this story is going. It's always gone down the drain before. But look, the drain is full, and there's no more avoiding action. Let's get this house in order.
