What Comes in Three's?

Yesterday I cleaned out my wallet. The momentousness of the occasion will be lost on all but my wife. She is the one person in the world who is aware that the last time it happened was more than a decade ago. The symbolic parallel of the change of government may be less obscure, as I will try to explain.

You see, I discovered a lot of things in the process of changing over to a new wallet. The first similarity to our recent political history is that I didn't start out looking for a new wallet at all. I went into the store with the intent to buy new socks and underwear. You will be happy to know that I achieved that objective. The interesting parallel to world events is that I did it effectively by changing the strategy I had intended to apply. I was headed for some of the Veteran's Day sales at the mall. I had seen a lot of publicity, in various media, but in particular, I got email solicitations from a couple of major department stores about their discounted prices. I missed the first opportunity due to circumstances beyond my control. The second one made a large number of claims for economic advantages, which is to say, 50% discounts in a number of departments, sound pretty attractive, especially since it is a regular source of many purchases for my wife and me.

Are you beginning to see the historical similarities?

What changed the outcome and resulted in a new wallet was a change of destination. I picked an up-scale department store which was situated quite literally between the two that were my intended targets. (No, that wasn't a hint. Besides, in my family we pronounce it "Targét" the way they do in France. At least it sounds upscale that way.) At any rate, oddly enough, it was the delay between finding underwear and socks that caused my wife and I to be distracted by some rather attractive wallets. As it turned out the wallets, like the advertised specials at the other department store chains, were 50% off, so I picked up one of them too.

So the journey began to make a transition to a new wallet regime. From there the historic parallels thinned, but I did discover that I had been hanging on to a number of things that had been "useful" at the time. For instance I was carrying a small supply of suicide prevention information cards, as well as some tiny business card size tri-fold brochures on domestic and school violence prevention because at the time I acquired them, I was actively involved with "at risk" young people on a daily basis. These were programs that the administration had introduced to these students. Having these support materials handy seemed only prudent and, well, supportive, of the needs of the "clients". But when I tried to fold the new wallet into my pocket, I found that it was simply overburdened with content, and could not fold thin enough to fit my pocket, the way the old wallet had. Indeed the old wallet no longer fit really well either. Between bloated contents and expanded dimensions it frequently jammed and had difficulty, particularly exiting the pocket. But the new wallet was a three fold, segmented design that looked like it might fit better in dimensions of my pockets.

What proved to be true, however, was that there were just too many resources being carried in the old wallet that were not being used effectively. I had to extract several credit cards that had not been useful in several years. Perfectly good credit cards, they were, but just not the ones that provide the greatest financial benefits. Several proofs of membership in organizations in which I don't actively participate had to go. Certain legally required documents like driver's license and proof of insurance had to stay, along with some protection against the unforeseeable, disaster related proof of health insurance, auto club card and the like. I also kept a list. It contained phone numbers of friends and neighbors, people to call upon in times of need, or to offer help.

What my wallet didn't contain much of was cash. In that department, I had only two dollars left. But strangely enough, I found something else interesting that I knew was there, even though I had had no occasion to use it in the last couple of years: a 5 Euro note. That gave me something to think about.

I also found my blood donor card. Being Veterans' Day I saw some direct symbolism there. Naturally, I kept that.

Having trimmed the content, I was still not able to fold the wallet to the size that would fit well. I took another look and set aside yet another group of the least critical cards required on a less than daily basis. The wallet now fits nicely into my pocket, and I plan, as the wallet gets broken in, the leather adjusts to accommodate the current contents, I will add back some of those "essential" but not "urgent" elements I am setting aside for the moment.

Now, of course, I am not claiming that my tale of wallet transition is a perfectly drawn analogy to our country's current political situation. It might have been a better story with more political symbolism if I had added that I tossed all my gasoline company credit cards, but I am a terrible liar, just because I have a compulsion to tell the truth. The fact of that matter is I haven't carried any company specific gasoline cards in many years now.

Do I have any real reason to believe that changes in the control of both houses of Congress are going to bring about exciting changes in energy policy? Do I have any insider tips on whether bio-mass sources will become a commercial reality any faster under the new regime? Are we going to see significant changes in whom and how we subsidize ethanol production? Is bio-butanol really going to prove to be a viable aviation fuel any more rapidly because of the more progressive bias of democrats? Has thermal depolymerization's years of slow, apparently stalled, progress seen the last of the petroleum industry's suppression tactics? I don't know.

I think I heard from Senator Chuck Schumer's comments on HBO this weekend (RealTime with Bill Maher) that we are almost certain to see a tripartite division of Iraq. I am guessing that his status in the Democratic Party has allowed him some sneak previews of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations from President Bush's blue ribbon bi-partisan commission led by James Baker III and Lee Hamilton. Clearly the appointment of the new Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, until recently a member of that Iraq Study Group, suggests that the Baker-Hamilton recommendations will carry a lot of weight in practical terms. Schumer's "assumption" that we will see a confederation of three separate Iraqi states sounds like a prediction to me. Whether or not a federal coalition or confederation structure can hold them together as a nation remains to be seen. I think I have really come to my own conclusion that the only hope for Iraqi peaceful coexistence is a three way division of the country in some fashion. I wonder if, unintentionally, my wallet purchasing decision was influenced directly or indirectly to choose a new three fold wallet by my thoughts about Iraq.

If you have any suggestions on how to accelerate movement toward bio-based fuels, I would love to hear them.

love

Stafford "Doc" Williamson