Cognitive Dissonance

There is an old story about the great 19^th Century composer and pianist, Anton Rubinstein—teacher to Tschaikowsky.  He was a notorious lounge lizard who had great difficulty waking up in the morning.  In the absence of annoying electronic alert tones (praise technology!), his wife devised a fool-proof strategy to awaken him.  She would crawl downstairs and bang out an unresolved cadence on the piano.  Disturbed by the hanging, gravity-defying dissonance, he would grumpily race down the stairs to resolve the chord. 

I thought of this as I lingered in bed this morning.  It was a late night, prolonged by a concession speech that didn’t want to happen.  I was glad for the quiet.  Indeed, the quality of the air outside seemed different somehow, as if the positive charge that was so evident the day before had been neutralized.  I could relax in harmony with the world.

Thank goodness.  Now that the election is over, we are all free to move on to more important things.  The hype of the election has all but buried the important headlines, leaving us wanting and sadly uninformed.   For example, I have lost track of the continuing saga of Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson.  As I anticipate the final installment of my favorite vampire series, I need to know how to interpret the on-screen love affair against the real-life drama that has unfolded in recent months.  Even Donald Trump took a break from his president-bashing to address this crisis, declaring the aloof and elusive Stewart to be a “dog.”  I am weighing my opinions carefully; this is Trump’s area of expertise.

From another chapter of “Oh, No You Didn’t,” I discovered today that Rihanna is singing duets with Chris Brown.  I mean, we’ve been so preoccupied with getting clarity on the definition of rape that we totally overlooked intimate partner violence.  Apparently, Rihanna missed the memo on the abhorrence of violence against women, releasing a single with her ex-lover and abuser called “Nobodies Business.”  With that kind of spelling, perhaps she has bigger problems than Chris Brown.

The most difficult news to comprehend—enough that I caught myself wishing for a news-grabbing recount—is the possibility that Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher may be conspiring to bring out a Star Wars 7.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved them in the campy, comic-like characters of the classic Star Wars episodes, throwing off lines like “I’d rather kiss a wookie” without so much as a nuance.  But other than nostalgia, what could possibly make such a concept appealing?  I already have visions emblazoned on my brain of a geriatric space station, with C3PO and R2D2 newly retrofitted for home health functions.  It brings new meaning to the concept of a Death Star.  And yet, I find it oddly refreshing that this ranked as news today.

Here’s hoping that as we close the door on the election, we find a new normal—one based on real values of integrity, communication, social justice, and basic caring for one another.  We need to be participants, holding the feet of our elected officials to the fire until they deliver on their public trust.  It is time to abolish the dissonance of party polarity and get to work on working together.  We all need to realize that there are no quick and dirty fixes; like harmony, the progression toward a better tomorrow occurs step by step.