Heading down the road towards a lakeside driving range to grip & rip a bucket of balls with my son (who has recently taken an interest in golf……..so now I’m a little curious again as well ~ no, not real curious, I mean its firkin golf for Pete’s sake…but it does feel kina-groovy to get that one or two perfect pings; …driver upon little white ball ~ such an unlikely set of tools…).  Anyways, it’s an early-spring-like 58 degrees in the afternoon sunshine of December’s end in the Northeast…& we get to talking about the ‘…whys & what fors?…’ of this unusual weather.  Thusly so, …global warming comes up and talk about a professor friend of ours who has hiked wilderness Alaska for at least a week out of nearly every year of his adult life…and is quite aware of several things glacier related.

So my son [14] mentions that he saw in a documentary how the oil & other ‘big’ energy companies have paid a heck of a lot of money to some scientists to dispel the notion that there’s any truth to the science of global warming & the effects of industrial pollution.  Then he said,  “Aren’t the President, Vice President and other high level officials in Washington D.C. investors &/or officers in these kinds of companies?  So, dad, doesn’t that make our most honored leaders…liars?   The men and women who make our laws and uphold the Constitution of the United States are…some of the world’s biggest liars?” 

Then he said something that chilled my blood for a second…until the recognition of his mighty youth & presence of mind to ask questions such as this…& a momentary faraway glaze came over me as I studied my own youth and relative wherewithal with words.  He said:  …If the most honored leaders of our Country and their partner-industries are…some of the world’s biggest liars,

……..what does that make us citizens? 

…

Good question, son.  We like to presume that truthfulness will triumph.

>Push a ball onto a tee, line up your shot, head down, grip it & rip it.

It must be tough to be a 14 year old [with a good vocabulary] nowadays. 

Plenty of conveniences, yes, but…an awful mess o mixed messages