The controversy around our government is perplexing. People who are otherwise thoughtful, considerate, and respectful sometimes slide into mud slinging brawls. 

 

I listened to a podcast that is trying to make the Mueller Report more accessible. Clearly, the author wants people to read it for themselves. Several times in his testimony before congress he declined to respond to questions. 

 

"I refer you to the report."

 

For an audience that is eager for sound bites, this was unsatisfying. Like the crowd of people reluctant to read four hundred pages that are not about a boy wizard, I hoped to skip the effort and have Mueller tell me what to think. In forty words or less. 

 

But he was reticent to give cliff-notes to an investigation that involved two years and thousands of hours of testimony. 

 

What I began to understand is that we have been duped. There is a craftily devised effort to divide our country, and it is working. Moreover the objective is less about the contents of our disagreements than it is that we disagree. Strongly. 

 

 

There was a rift at our house in recent days. Mostly I kept my mouth shut, but the internal diatribe more than made up for it. After reading about the deviousness of troll farms whose sole purpose is to spread dissent, it occurred to me that the same tactics are at play between my ears. Forces that want me to find fault with my husband and family plant insidious accusations in my thinking. Slipped right in between the friendly comments. I cannot precisely name the sources, though images of Darth Vader, and Voldemort come close. Voldemort, who has no nose.

 

The nose symbolizes perception, and that invisible sense of knowing things that cannot be seen. What my nose tells me is that contempt is neither a good way to understand someone else, nor a healthy means to express myself. There are other, less poisonous spells at my disposal. Even if I don't have a wand. 

 

"Expelliarmus!"