4514 The Man in the Funhouse Mirror

Funhouse mirrors really aren't all that much fun.  They distort the truth even more than the one on your bathroom wall.  That one only shows you a backward reflection of yourself.  The funhouse mirror shows you a warped version, your head is huge -- or tiny. Your body is either bloated or stretched. Your gorgeous smile looks like a grimace. 

In the bathroom mirror, you see a reverse image of yourself. In the funhouse mirror, that’s compounded by elongated limbs, stretched or compressed faces and also someone who is much older than your lovely and talented self.

The guy in the distortion mirror, our current soon-to-be-former president, believes what he sees. The funhouse mirror is his perception of reality and he wants it to be yours. Look. Your head is twice its normal size. Your body is paper straw thin.  But don’t write off the funhouse mirror.  It shows more than you think.

That image?  It may be what you look like to others. It may be what you actually are.  But even worse, it may be what we’ve become.

When the funhouse mirror reflects actual reality, we’re dead in the water.  When the national political reality becomes an Orwellian nightmare of lies, distortions, secret deals, living in the moment while ignoring both the past and the future… and distorting language which also distorts concepts and ultimately the ability to think, we’re in trouble.

You can’t put a funhouse mirror on an ironing board to press out its waves.  You can only break it.  And today’s funhouse mirrors don’t bring you seven years of bad luck, they are the payoff for the years of bad luck we’re already having.  Break one. It’ll make you feel better.

Closing argument: In this case, the mirror is straight but the guy in front of it is grotesquely warped. 

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Comments? Send them to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2019