In which The Gay Recluse braces for the inevitable.

This past week has been very depressing to us.

You just get the feeling that the election is already slipping away.

It’s not like we think Obama is going to save us or anything.

But when was the last time we had a major candidate who was smart, charismatic and urbane?

In our life, the answer is never.

Why do people think they’re so superior because they append the phrase “by the hand of God” to something?

It is by the hand of God that we write this blog.

It is by the hand of God that we create this oil pipeline.

One thing we can say with absolute certainty.

God is ambivalent about politics.

Or countries.

Perhaps we should pray for divine intervention to stop our government from ossifying and cracking apart.

Except — as with this manhole cover — such prayers would be futile.

We try to take solace in the decaying beauty of the decline.

And the certainty that without death, you can’t have rebirth.

Whenever anyone asks me for something to put into a time capsule, I tell them not to bother. The manhole covers will last longer and look better than anything I could give them.

–Andy Warhol