You presume to know you’re in a red state (Texas) when a regional chain business will take a pot shot at Obama for a traditional, diplomatic bow to Japan’s figurehead emperor. I have a hunch they did not post any public comment when George W. held hands with the Saudi prince in 2005, an equally symbolic gesture, though arguably a hundred times more gay.
The alternate explanation, of course, is that my interpretation is spurious and the sign is to be taken as a general platitude. This, I could go for. Not a big fan of bowing am I - in fact it’s my number one hangup about actively practicing Buddhism in spite all of its non-theistic reassurances. I don’t really appreciate the point of bowing to Buddha, much less Christ, Muhammad or Zeus. So in the alternative explanation maybe the folks at the tire shop are far more daring in publicly espousing their atheism than I am. I would totally fucking respect them in that case. And to be perfectly “fair and balanced” about it, wouldn’t this pass, prima facie, for an Ayn Rand quote?
So, should I call the tire shop and ask them? Or should I let my intuition and seething resentment of southeast Texas just fester? I’m paying beau coup dollars for a prime-location apartment in the greener ideological pastures of Austin. So why haven’t I been there in weeks?
The answer is obvious: self-loathing.
And maybe you thought this was about a sign. Or politics. Or religion.
No, not really.
