A Flipping Switch

With all the conventions going on I thought I'd wax political...

“Senator, Senator, Dave Mandel from Cycling Reviewer. Your view of ‘Don’t ask, Don’t Tell’ is well known, as is your firm belief that marriage should be solely between one man and one wom–”

“Yes, yes David, I am quite the conservative on the social issues” interrupts the senator.

“Yes, you are that, Senator; you are that. I wonder if I could get you to speak to another powerful social issue. Your opponent, Governor McHassel, recently came out in support of bicycles sharing the road with automobiles. Where do you stand, or should I ask where do you ride, on this, err…cranky social issue?”

“Great question, a timely one, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss this heaviest of subjects with the American people. I myself am not a cyclist so must speak from what’s in my heart and in my gut.”

 “Honestly, cycling in the roadway, or more to the point, cyclists who ride their bikes in the roadways of this Country simply do not belong. The road is for autos, motor-cycles, public transportation, and the vital trucking commerce that keeps this economy on the top of an ever-more competitive, increasingly diverse, global economic battlefield.”

“To ride in these roads, these arteries if you will, impeding the life’s blood of the American economy is akin to clogging those arteries with too much fried food and cholesterol. This Country will not have clogged arteries! Cycling in the road, quite frankly, is…un-American…and costing this economy precious jobs in a time when those jobs are needed more than ever.”

“As President, I will work with Congress to keep cyclists where they belong, off the road, in the dirt, with the wildlife, the turtles, and the deer.”

Boy if anything can flip my switch from rational human to reactive primate it's politics...or religion. Surely that's why we're told, if we want to remain polite, not to talk about either of them. But sometimes it just comes out, sometimes someone will say something contrary to what I believe and BAM!, KA-POW!, like a freaking light switch I'm thinking things like--How #*&$% ignorant can you be?  My neurons bypass any rationalizing circuitry and turn my normally cool demeanor into a frothing, raging, whack-job. Short circuited into lunacy, caught up in a moment that I'm not fully processing. We've all been there. I'd much prefer reserving such reaction for things like grabbing a hot pan, running from killer bees, or leaping from the jaws of a hungry alligator, but not a simple discussion, and especially not simple discussion on a topic that really needs to be calmly discussed in this day and age, in this country of ours...politics and religion.  
What can we do about it though? A Xanax scrip for everyone? Hmmm. No. Maybe we can never get rid of the short entirely, but surely we can temper it...I believe mindfulness is the key.