Nobody Wins by a Nose.

Hold Your Horses. We've Lost Sight.

"Out of sight, out a head"

The call-by-call announcer identifies the race by horse by position and progress. The jockey is never mentioned. Of course, the rider reins and reigns the horse for the best chance to win. At the finish the whiny cut their losses while the winner whinnies wonderment and receives most of the attention and adulation. But what we, the viewers, can't, don't and probably don't want to see or hear the behind-the-stall shenanigans. But it is vital we understand that all horses have a stable of support that feeds their hopes.

If we really heard the real race, it might it sound something like this:

"Coming around the turn, Hopeful Reality and Mounting Enthusiasm trail Prideful Prejudice, Anger Unreigned, Arrogance Unchained. Then Bridled Party is followed by Sucker Society.  A few lengths back are Corrupt Interests, Capital Investment and Political Might, waiting for their opening. On the outside are Truth Speaker, Justice Selection, Constitution Keeper, Righteous Indignation, Ego Maniac, Special Interests, Conservative Agenda. Still keeping pace are Common Sense, Common Good and Public Concern trail the leaders by lengths and are slowly falling back. Coming down the home stretch it app a two-horse race now, folks." 

The neigh-saying "cant-her" banter denies and derides Momentum Seeker and Public Interests, uneasily saddled or sidelined along the rail. While powerful private Pony Pander pails the pace.  Horse Scents and Hoarse Nonsense rail the trail; Horse Cents rides the track. All of the rhetoric-mud and muck slinging stinks to high heaven, While the polls may have portrayed the race as running neck and neck pole to pole, the stench smells like nose to nose.  Is it anybody's race? No, of course not. No one really knows what's behind the No's and nonsense. But the smell sure sticks.

Hopeful Wishing won't win. Rational Thought and Common Sense have an outside chance, but only if Honest Voting and Human Rights finish strong. With such a confused and convoluted field of backers, benefactors, beraters, bankers, betters, it is difficult to envision a finish line where dooms-dayers don't de-riders win. When we all ride round and round, Nobody wins.

Aren't we on a so-called "merry" go round?

Can any of us truly see ourselves? 

Look who we have become!

In the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey, Odysseus blinds the one-eyed Polyphemus to escape the giant's man-eating hunger and the cave Odysseus found his crew and himself trapped inside. What Odysseus did not realize at the time he had led them to their destruction. Their hunger blinded them to plunder what was not theirs. His crew followed him faithfully as their blind trust and collective hunger led them to their downfall.

Many of us are asleep and then blind when we think we are awake and aware.

The sightless giant cyclops howled his wounded anger...

"Who poked out my eye?" 

The crafty culprit, Odysseus cunningly replied with a untruth...

"My name is Nobody."

When the wounded giant heard this, he urged for his cyclopic cousins to seek revenge. When they answered his pleas, they questioned him... 

"Who poked out your eye?" 

Of course, Polyphemus responded...

 "Nobody poked out my eye."

...and, of course, when his gigantic relatives heard this, they returned to herding their mindless sheep flocks.

But Odysseus could not leave well enough alone. Thinking he had escaped any retribution by having outwitted a simple dimwit sheep herder, he arrogantly proclaimed... 

"My name is Odysseus, King of Ithaca. It is I who blinded you."

Hearing these words and the direction from which they came, Polyphemus hurled huge boulders towards Odysseus almost destroying Odysseus' ship and crew.

For all his previous heroics, Odysseus revealed he was still a flawed leader.  Regarded as a Greek hero. He was a master of disguise and deception; he had designed the Trojan Horse. He was the King of his domain - the Greek island of Ithaca.  He was even Athena's favorite - the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice. When Odysseus just barely escaped with a victory over the blinded, one-eyed giant, his words and actions revealed his all too human failings, flaws and vulnerabilities. His hubris hunger - an arrogant, self-centered and superior-minded attitude - was just the beginning of the hardship and destruction that lay ahead for his followers. So, in many ways while his success was revered, his ego and arrogance will lead him to lose almost everything.

"Man, when are you going to learn? You are nobody in comparison to me! You are nobody until you pay your respects to my power, not yours." 

"Get over your Self, voters, 
Your head may be stuck inside your self-importance."

"Those who do not learn lessons from the past, are doomed to relive them." 

~ George Santana

With the 2016 national political election on the horizon, it seems obvious to almost NOBODY that NOBODY will win.  The election results will not produce ANYBODY or SOMEBODY or Yes, we are all going to lose come November.

Toxic finger-pointing and blame-gaming never serves society.   

Nobody wins when nobody is running for election. 

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!

They'd banish -- you know!

How dreary to be somebody!

How public like a frog

To tell one's name the livelong day

To an admiring bog! 

~ Emily Dickinson

Losing our heads loses our brains 
closes our eyes and minds to the highway ahead 

Nobody wins when power and superiority reign.  Nobody wins when deception and disadvantage rules. Nobody wins when people's voices are ignored or disregarded. Nobody wins unless they become somebody.

The lessons for humanity have been on display for centuries.  Human history, literature, religions, movies, mythology, art and poetry all speak to the messages and ethics we need in modern society. We forget that we need to be reminded and reminded. 

When does anger and exclusion ever serve the people?

When entertainment enamors, the public fails to recognize reality! 

If we are so programmed, the clown in a horse outfit will win!

Everyone can become everybody.

A spirited body spirited for the goodwill of all
becomes a much stronger nobody.

Nobody can become some body.

One of my favorite spaghetti westerns where NOBODY always triumphs.