Endless End Of Summer: Black Magic

Sooooo I guess I am sidelined by this “end of summer” jag. Since we cannot go to the beach with Annette Funicello I guess we are just going stay here and see if August, and now September finally turns into the hot, humid, nightmarish St. louis summer that makes it what we call HOME! There are two things on my mind today. They seem like the end of something and the beginning of something. Some good magic and some black magic but magic never the less.

Jeff Smith and Steve Brown did the perp walk this last month. I do not know Smith other then he was the “rising star” youngster in the state Democratic ranks. That was last week. This week he is a felon waiting to be sentenced. Steve Brown is in the same boat. It is a bad boat. Brown is a long time acquaintance. He used to be a U-Club member with me and had a nice squash game. He is a life long public servant. He was a State Senator. Smith was a State Representative. They have both resigned. Somehow they were involved with distributing a flyer smearing Carnahan who was running against Smith for Congress. They didn’t own up to it and then.... wait for it... wait for it... covered it up. Lied about their involvement to the investigators and then The FBI.

I like Steve Brown. I think of him as a good person and when he was working for the State AG’s office he helped me out once or twice with clients demystifying the process for me. Picturing this nice, helpful public servant, putting himself in a position where he was forced to wear a wire to get his friends... makes me sweat. He and Smith and their story, hammer home one of my least favorite life lessons which is regarding mistakes and perhaps (gasp) prove me wrong. I have come to believe that I am only two mistakes away from having to move into my parents basement. They might not have a basement much longer. I also believe I am three (bad or stupid) mistakes away from jail. It appears (once again) that my math is wrong. It only takes two bad mistakes to go to jail. These guys illustrate that. Not bad guys, just a little bad judgment, a little not owning up to it and a lot of bad luck to go with it.

Unfortunately the same rules seem to apply to all aspects of life. Marriage, job, parenting,friendships. When you lose focus (and we all do) you screw up. We look at people like Jeff and Steve and say to ourselves that they were bad people or hopeless screw ups but the fact is that they were just people... like us. As much as it pains me the same is true for Mark Sanford and all the rest.

There but for the grace of God.... Go I. And it could happen to me tomorrow. And maybe you too. So do not be too smug about our latest felons. Say a prayer for these guys, light a candle for them and show the grace you hope people will show you and yours when the screw up. But don’t expect a lot from them. That is the Black magic that haunts me at end of summer.