In the counseling center where I worked for over 40 years as psychologist we had a 40-cup coffee pot. I used to drink coffee all day, including during sessions with my clients. I suspect that I must have been drinking about 9 large cups of coffee each day.
Somehow I developed a bladder condition that required me to avoid spices, certain leafy green vegetables, alcohol and caffeine for several weeks. I felt like I had nothing good to eat during that time and whined like a baby.
I often left work about 6 PM to drive home. My office was on the third floor of the building where the counseling center was housed. I usually walked down the stairway to the parking lot. One afternoon during this time of caffeine deprivation, I came to the bottom of the stairs and realize something was different. I couldn't quite understand what it was that was different and had to stand and think about it for a few minutes. Suddenly it came to me: my ears weren't ringing like they had done for years. At that moment, I became a dedicated caffeine-free coffee drinker.
It is now a week since the US Presidential election. I am experiencing a similar moment of epiphany. My ears are not being assaulted by campaign rhetoric. I barely know what to do with myself. The unfamiliar assault of the political campaign had become familiar. But now my ears are not ringing.
I wonder why those who are running political campaigns think that, if they are not getting the results they want in the polls, they need to continue saying the same messages even more loudly and more often. Why can't they realize that no matter how often and how loudly they repeat the message that they just can't sell it to everyone. It isn't that they are not saying the messages forcefully enough or often enough; it is that people aren't buying the message, or that they have already fully convinced all of the people who are willing to believe it and that nobody else will be swayed. What a waste of time and money.
Fortunately I have not had to go though total withdrawal immediately. There are still politicians and pundits trumpeting the same messages from the campaigns even after the results of election are clear. I assume that they are having campaign withdrawal. Maybe they will eventually come to see the silence as a something positive, just as I learned that the losing the ringing in my ears was a nice side effect of cutting back on caffeine. Maybe they will give some thought to reducing their own addictions.
Poetry has been added in the Contemporary Poetry section and the Returning section.