O.B.E. by Jamie Kirkpatrick

A few days ago, I sat down to write this week’s Musing. I finished and filed my copy early Sunday morning. The piece was called Scylla and Charybdis in honor of the two immortal and dangerous monsters in Greek mythology who beset the narrow waters now known as the Straits of Messina. I remembered Homer’s account in The Odyssey when his hero Odysseus had to maneuver his galley between those two deadly forces—one a whirlpool, the other a dangerous reef often depicted as a six-headed monster—if he wanted to survive and bring his crew safely home.  I thought I knew how Odysseus must have felt.

In modern parlance, to be between Scylla and Charybdis means to be caught between two equally unpalatable alternatives. Sound familiar? It should. There we were, well into a Presidential campaign where on one hand, we had a visibly failing octogenarian, while on the other, we had a convicted felon, a man of dubious moral character who seemingly wants to do nothing more than fight. Yes, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump had vastly different visions for America, but somehow, this election was not so much about those visions as it was about optics, imagery, and ad-hominem arguments.

Then suddenly everything changed. My Musing was, as they say in State Department lingo, O.B.E., Overtaken By Events. On Sunday afternoon, President Biden decided to drop out of the race.

I had come to believe that Mr. Biden was a good man with a strong team around him, but he was no longer a vital leader. He had become, rather, a man who had earned his rest. In my eyes, his Vice President and potential heir-apparent, Kamala Harris, had been a disappointing and almost invisible presence in the current administration; I once had high hopes for her, but her low profile made me question who she really was, and if she had what it takes to be President. Well, now we’ll see. There are a few other well qualified Democrats—Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, even California’s Gavin Newsom—who may challenge Ms. Harris for the nomination, but the last thing the Democratic Party needs is a messy divorce. Time will tell.

As for the Republican side of the equation, nothing much has changed. Mr. Trump is still a pugnacious Populist who remains a polarizing personality in American politics. He is also a candidate who raises real fears among our allies and threatens America’s standing in the world. His newly minted running mate, JD Vance, seems to have jumped on board a train he once thought was a wreck, but one that now looks like a free ride to a destination far beyond his wildest hillbilly dreams. And then there are still all those legal potholes still lining Mr. Trump’s road, albeit with the Supreme Court and Judge Aileen Cannon patching the asphalt.

Many of us straddling what was once the center are holding our collective breath. There is still the Scylla of the left and the Charybdis of the right. Now I don’t know about you, but that leaves me with precious little breathing room, let alone navigational choice. I suppose I could close my eyes and hope for the best, but that’s hardly a recipe for sailing or political success.

I rarely wade into political water, but today, in the wake of President Biden’s momentous decision, I deemed it was time to get my feet wet. In the Odyssey, Odysseus’ ship eventually founders in a terrible storm and everyone on board, save Odysseus, is lost. Hopefully, we’ll suffer a better fate, but without a doubt, it’s going to be rough sailing for next three-and-a half months, let alone the next four years. So lash yourself to the mast and hang on! Here we go…

I’ll be right back.

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer who lives in Chestertown. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy Magazine.

His new novel, “The Tales of Bismuth; Dispatches from Palestine, 1945-1948” explores the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is available on Amazon.