My Two Wolves

An Internal War Between the Eternal Optimist and a Major Worrywart

THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION before us in this soul-scorching summer of 2024 might be this:  how much faith do you have in America, really? 

Is there an underlying, fundamental decency to the great majority of the American people?  Or, are we so dizzy, distracted, alienated, self-involved, sports-addicted, party-addled, and yahoo ridiculous that we have lost control of the national ship, most polite social norms, and the levers of democracy? 

Despite the kneejerk tendency to form opposing teams on every single issue, person-place-thing and pizza topping, the answers to the above questions are Yes.  And yes.

Newsflash Republicans!  Most Democrats love this country not only critically but deeply and intensely.  Newsflash Democrats!  Most Republicans are kindly, faithful, neighborly, generous people.  There is not only a messy stew of opinions but deep layers of goodness here.

Yes, but… which wolf will America feed most?  The Angry Wolf or the Kindly Wolf?  The bloodthirsty one or the mutually supportive pack animal?


AS FOR MY WOLVES, and perhaps for your own, there are alternating days and moments of bone-crushing pessimism followed, after a spell, by a sense of quiet optimism, the kind found with a walk on the shore or in the woods.  Or a dog walk around the neighborhood.  Or a bike ride, which can turn the most hardened hearts into our carefree 10-year-old selves after less than a mile.

Don’t get me wrong, there are surely reasons to worry.  This is a violent nation.  We have too many poor, poorly educated, food-insecure and at-risk kids in this, the world’s wealthiest country.  Colorado and Mississippi, Massachusetts and Missouri, Wyoming and Minnesota are not only different states, in so many ways they might as well be different countries.

Oh, and the upcoming election.  This is not like 2012, only a dozen years back, with decent, intelligent Mitt Romney running against decent, intelligent Barack Obama.  The Democratic candidate is an undeniable California liberal just finding her political footing after 4 wobbly years (feel your immediate tendency here to dissent, defend her and shout, No, no, no!)?  Opposing her is, to be generous, a dark populist and dissembler of truth, unity and the common good.  And until recently, this person was the favorite to win the November election.  (ACTION ALERT:  he’s still slightly ahead in most of the decisive swing states). 

So, for all of you thinking:  Well, right now, we realists have reason for pessimism.  Sure.  I can’t debate that.  An objectively terrible human being is a hero to too many Americans.

BUT BACK TO THE INITIAL PREMISE… which America are we now?  And which America will show up in greater force come November and the weeks and months that follow?   

I don’t know.  You don’t know.  The editorial wizzes of The NY Times and The Washington Post don’t know.  Neither do the pundits on CNN or your favorite political writers here on Substack.  The next three months will be a wild roller-coaster ride.  On good days, it will put the big food fight in the movie Animal House to shame.  Or darker days, it will feel like the national seams are about to tear apart at any moment (yes, more than they already have).  That, sadly, is an easy prediction. 

So, what do I know?  This, and it’s experiential and intuitive knowing, it’s not polling, pundit and data-driven knowledge.  Here’s my deep cavern of intuition:  The good hearts in our nation will outnumber the dark hearts.  The young, the young-at-heart and the forward-looking optimists will outnumber the angry, acrimonious pessimists.  Innate decency will outshine the nation’s many shadows.

Will all that translate to electoral victory on November 5^th?  Don’t know.  Go ask the best Vegas bookies or Madam Zora, renown psychic.

Personally, I’m feeding my sunnier, more optimistic wolf.  And while I have decades-old trust issues, I am leaning toward trusting America.  I’m surely rooting for us. 

And I’m still nervous.  Time to walk the dog, or ride the bike, or do what I did yesterday, swim 30 hard laps.  I felt better afterwards.   If that’s not your thing, well, you can always jump through the sprinkler.  Right now, it’s surely hot enough.  And right now, it may be the perfect thing to do.