After the heavy subject of Post 104, you
deserve something lighter and more pleasant today: Donald Trump! See the last
sentence in previous blog—a pun for the lighter side. Did I say “lighter and
more pleasant” with respect to Trump?
Yes, I did, as incredible as that may seem to you at this point. Just read on.
.
Donald Trump Family Interview
This evening I watched the Trump family
being interviewed on CNN, not just the old man himself, but also his current
(third) wife and four of his adult children, two daughters and two sons, all of
them perhaps half-brothers and half-sisters.
Not sure just how they relate to each other, but all of them Donald’s
children. They seemed like very nice people, well brought up, well mannered,
all good looking and nicely groomed. And that’s in spite of the two divorces in
their family, something that, according to marriage and family specialists,
should not happen. They should be disturbed people with lots of problems in
their lives.
Of course, they may all have been
groomed for the event and be on their best behavior, including Donald himself. So,
they may have been cleverly prepared for this show of civility. You never know
what goes on behind the scene. However, they all seemed pretty genuine, again even
including Donald. They all spoke so highly of their father in answer to
questions from the floor that they would not have been able to practice on. And
Donald, that tough bear of a political campaigner, himself came out as a really
friendly and likeable chap. His children all spoke so highly of him in
spontaneous unrecited responses to questions. But in spite of all that, the
fact of two divorces does throw kind of a shadow on the whole situation,
especially on his repeated claim that he has a wonderful family. Nevertheless,
the programme was a very pleasant change from Trump the vicious campaigner. He
himself explained the reason for showing this different side of him: he was in
a friendly environment instead of in the hostility of vicious campaigners who
are dishing all sorts of untruths about him. So, at least, he explained. But perhaps there is a brighter and lighter side to the man. Political campaigns can
bring out the worst even in the best!
Certainly there is one thing I accept
from him, namely that he is largely free from the pressures of special interest
groups and their lobbyists, since he is rich and can act independently. I
believe we are all aware of how tied most politicians are in the US—and probably
in Canada as well—to these groups and their agents, how unfree they are to vote
their conscience and convictions. It would be a refreshing experience to have a
US President who is free to do what he sees as the right thing after full
consultation with all the stake holders. I would expect him to reign in some of
his seemingly atrocious “promises” or threats once in office and after
consultations. (The use of quotation marks in this last sentence is significant
for grasping its meaning.)
The Lighter Side
A lighter side? Another one? Indeed there is. There are various skyscrapers in the world
associated with the Trump name. Canada has one in Toronto and right now as we
speak there is one under construction in downtown Vancouver, my city. It is the
second highest building in the city. The outside seems to be completed; the
interior is still being worked on. I
wonder about the things architects take into consideration. I know they at
least sometimes take the shadow a high building casts over its neighbourhood
into consideration, but I wonder about reflections of the sun. We live in
downtown, the West End. Between us and the downtown high rises north of us there
are a few blocks of lower building and various parks. So we have a wide open view
of the city’s sky line. Some of these
buildings reflect the sun right into our apartment, so brightly that we either
have to move to another chair or draw the drapes.
At dawn, the sun rises in the east where
we cannot see it, but reflects its bright beams onto the windows of high
buildings in the north, from where the reflection bounces off right into our
apartment. We can’t even see the sun but
it blinds us! During the evening sunset
in the east, the same thing happens, but now from other buildings. Again, we can’t even see the sun but we have
to move to another chair.
What does that have to do with Trump?
Well, I warned you this would be about his lighter side. That new Trump
building, more than any other, reflects the morning and evening sun from many
of its different floors separately so that our dining area is totally lit up
from an invisible sun. If our bathroom door is open, those reflections in the
morning totally light up the world map on the wall behind the toilet, while in
the evening the reflections are lower and lighten up the toilet itself! When
you consider that the sun itself is in a totally different direction and hidden
behind a dozen or more high rises, then our bathroom lighting system is the
cause for much amused laughter on our part and that of our guests. So, that tiger
we see on the TV day after day—at least if you can stand him that long—has
after all and indeed his brighter side!
His family showed it during the family interview and we see it every
morning and evening.
So, we do wonder whether architects take
such reflections into consideration.
Whether we like it or not, we are reminded of Donald Trump every morning
and evening. We are grateful that it is that lighter side.
Pun intended!
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