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Get Off My Lawn: The devil lies in the details and defeat Sunday Oct 15, 2017 at 12:01 AM By Rob Galvin Mail Tribune Smoke from still-smoldering wildfires settled into a comfy chair through the valley for a few days this past week like a relative who overstays his welcome — a less than subtle reminder that, even though our local danger rating has returned to green, we truly never are immune or out of harm’s way. And, you know something … it ticked me off. My cup of human kindness has nearly emptied of empathy. It’s not that I’ve stopped caring; it’s just that lately there has been so much tragedy, so much turmoil, that my reserves are stretched thin. I’m sure I’m not alone. Worse still is that we’ve become so numbed by matters that appear out of our hands that we turn them sideways and focus on tangential arguments that spin like hanging curveballs waiting to be swatted. The fires overwhelm us? Let’s debate instead from the safety of our keyboards about the manner in which agencies battle the blazes, or what the theoretically best ways might be to prevent future catastrophes. Parts of our nation are devastated by hurricanes? Let’s take a cue from political prompters and put the onus for the devastation on the preparedness of the victims themselves. Dozens are murdered by a gun-toting gambler in Las Vegas? Let’s argue over whether putting restrictions on the contraption he used to turn his rifle into an even more effective murdering device would damage our fundamental rights. And on and on and so and so … burned by hot-take hysteria. Screwtape must be pleased. That demonic administrative functionary — conjured up 75 years ago by C.S. Lewis — dispensed advice to his nephew Wormwood on how to make miserable the lives of mere mortals. These sidebar arguments we now engage in are the epitome of Screwtape’s gradual, safe road … the gentle slope without sudden turns that leads to the Lowerarchy. “The more often (someone) feels without acting,” Screwtape observes, “the less he will be able ever to act; and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”  As if by design, we  average souls trundle about plump and unhappy during these times of crisis like an army of Puddleglums (another of Lewis’s creations) — seeking out the worst, rewarding the brashest, finding solace that the misery of others might match our own. We’ve become rubberneckers for the turmoil that exists along the side of our road — distracted from the underlying issues by a Rubik’s Cube of rational confusion that we try to twist and turn into a semblance of order. “Any idiot can face a crisis,” it’s been said. “It’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” And no matter who said it first — it’s been attributed to (among others) Anton Chekov, Clifford Odets, George Seaton and Bing Crosby — there lies within an unspeakable truth: That while we can get up our gumption in times of trouble, we just as easily are run down, over and through by that gentle, oppressive slope. It’s a melancholy place, to be sure, that I find myself this Sunday; and I offer apology to those who have made it this far if this particular Puddleglum predisposition has otherwise intruded on a moment of tenuous tranquility. It was something in the mixture of the smoke and clouds and overcast skies settling on the hilltops that stirred this dispirited spirit, a sense that these recent dramas and disasters — natural and otherwise — weren’t in actuality some sort of self-inflicted wound. Or, maybe it was just that stack of hand-baskets in the corner, awaiting distribution. In the 31st and final Screwtape letter, we discover that Wormwood has failed in his assignment as a corrupter and … well, let’s just say his punishment brings a new meaning to having family for dinner. The calamities and debates on our plates (less literally) don’t have simple solutions, and they eat at us from within as we put one foot in front of the other, cool our angry bones and pray for the skies to clear. Mail Tribune copy editor Robert Galvin is really a happy-go-lucky guy … honest. He can be reached at [email protected]