By Tricia Tennesen

The blow dryers were silent as I sat, waiting for a mysterious group of chemicals to lighten my hair from its natural, dirty brown to a light brown with highlights. It’s supposed to brighten my face, yet I often argue with myself over the merits at my age.

Lately, I’ve become more open to recognizing the ignorance of our nation. At times, I find it entertaining to listen. This current plague of foolishness is obvious to most of the world, yet I never cease to be amazed. I listened to the conversation next to me as I sat, looking like a 1950s comic-book character, about to launch for Mars, in my aluminum hat. Such is the hypocrisy of a nation. I looked the part of ignorance, but the woman next to me spoke the words.

She was speaking of how she refused to have intimate relations with any man who had received the COVID vaccine. Okay, I thought maybe she’s really smart, like a biochemist or a mathematician. Maybe she knows more than 95% of the world’s scientists.

After another fifteen minutes or so of baking in my space hat, this lady was telling her stylist about her Botox treatments for fine lines and how fabulous the results had been. She followed up with a reminder to herself to schedule another treatment.

Now, I cannot claim to be an extremely intelligent human, but I know enough to accept that I do not have all the answers, so I lean on the experts. Like my hair. I have no idea what’s cooking on my head. I only know that when I leave, my hair looks better, and I have a little bounce in my step, as if maybe just sitting in the stylist’s chair eliminated ten years. Not likely, but perhaps Botox treatments will do the job.

I also know that if you want to enjoy your days, you should do everything you can to avoid avoidable diseases. People blame the most ridiculous things on vaccines. I have a friend who lives in the middle of this country, on a ranch, and is exposed to ticks more than to COVID. Yet after she became allergic to beef, a common gift bestowed on us by ticks, she blamed her required COVID vaccination. Really?

How about we educate our citizens on critical thinking? Some of this is taught by our parents, but obviously, we aren’t learning enough. In the 1700’s we had Thomas Paine. Maybe this space hat I’m wearing can bring him back. I’ll dial it in and see what happens. If we had enough common sense to recognize hypocrisy, liars, carnival barkers, demagogues, and corruption, perhaps we would have realized that an adjudicated rapist speaking like an eighth grader and lying an average of twenty-two times a day might not be terribly concerned with others.