#2020: The Bell Curve & The Metaphor

#2020

The Bell Curve & The Metaphor

by

Lorene Funk Accardo

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

© 2019 by Lorene Funk Accardo, Lorene Funk Publishing LLC. 

All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13:  978-1-7343793-2-7

Published in the United States by Lorene Funk Accardo Publishing LLC

Look for other novels from Lorene Funk Accardo Publishing, LLC

#2016: A Liberal Move in a Conservative Story ©

www.lorenefunkaccardo.com

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

#2020 ©

Chapter 1 #THEDIARYOFAYOUNGGIRL

Chapter 2 #TAKEMEOUTTOTHEBALLGAME

Chapter 3 #BOOGITY!

Chapter 4 #THEBELLCURVE & #THEMETAPHOR

Chapter 5 # La Campana Curvada (#THEBELLCURVE & #THEMETAPHOR)

Chapter 6 #AIRPLANEMODE

Chapter 6 #ACITYATSEA

Chapter 7 #THEMIDNIGHTSPECIAL

Chapter 8 #SHESAIDWHAT?

Chapter 9 #LONGLIVETHEQUEEN

Chapter 10 #HOUSTONWEHAVEAPROBLEM

Chapter 11 #THETIGERLILLIES

Chapter 12 #HOLLYWOODANDWASHINGTON

Chapter 13 #THESHOWMAN

Chapter 14 #TAKEPRIDEINWHOYOUARE

Chapter 15 #AWATCHEDPOTNEVERBOILS

Chapter 16 #HALFFULLORHALFEMPTY

Chapter 17 #KNOWYOURDEMOCRACY & #GOVERNMENTSTRUCTURE

Chapter 18 # Conoce tu democracia (#KNOWYOURDEMOCRACY)

Chapter 19 #OPERATIONNORTHWOODS

Chapter 20 #THEMAYORS #THE DIVINE

Chapter 21 #THEWHO?

Chapter 22 #THEUNCLE #THEROCKSTAR #POCOHANTAS

Chapter 23 #SOCKSONTHECEILING

Chapter 24 #Calcetines en el techo (#SOCKSONTHECEILING)

Chapter 25 #SHEISN’TSINGINGYET

Chapter 26 #ASTEP & #ALEAP

Chapter 27 #THECHICKENCOUP

Chapter 28 #PARTYREVISIONS

#THEDIARYOFAYOUNGGIRL

I think Anne Frank said it best, How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day…anyone can do this, it costs nothing and is certainly very helpful. I can’t imagine what her last days were like. Sometimes I wonder how Anne Frank must have felt while she was being arrested. Anne Frank is someone I think about often. Her words are so humble, and I can hear how intuitive her words are to us all living even today. She was a young child living in hiding with her family above a warehouse. I believe many of us remember her words and think about them. Whenever I hear of places that do not teach about the Holocaust, I think about all her writings. She sent the world a strong message. People still aren’t listening. As intellectual as her words are, sometimes I think that her young innocence probably had her convinced that if her story could ever be heard, it would change the world. I am sure it changes hearts. I am still unsure it creates change for the good in the world. The last time I looked her discovery is still a mystery. There are philosophies on how she may have been caught. But nobody knows for certain who turned Anne Frank and her family into the authorities.

I think if anyone would have ever told her that nobody will read her message, she would have thought differently. Some of us are inspired. Some people read her diary and are changed forever. I have a hard time myself thinking that people would question her existence. A young girl knowing she could be captured anyday spent her time writing to us all. I think one of my favorite passages is when she writes, Everyone thinks I’m showing off when I talk, ridiculous when I’m silent, insolent when I answer, cunning when I have a good idea, lazy when I’m tired, selfish when I eat one bite more than I should. Anne Frank and I have a lot in common. I have lived my life under a microscope of scrutiny.

The life I have lived under a microscope has led to me spending a lot of time looking through microscope lenses rather often. We even own a microscope at home. It is fun discovering things. I can only look at things with certain magnifications that my eyes just can’t see on their own. But there are bigger ones out there. I was taking a science class in college. One day slides were already setup on the microscopes. I didn’t know if they were for my class, but I thought I would look. I was amazed by what I saw through the lens. I saw the most beautiful colors. There was a gorgeous teal with a bright orange speck with almost tentacle looking features around it. I could almost see an ocean floor with some sort of life attaching itself so it could rest among smaller life forms laying in the same area. I noticed the magnification was on a lower power so I thought I would take a bigger look by magnifying the image. Wow! I saw shades of pink and purple swaying in an out of each other. There were these perfectly round shapes vibrating beautiful radiant colors almost into the surrounding atmosphere. I began to see space instead of the ocean. Yes, I have a liberal arts education. As it turns out they were for us.

Our professor had us all looking, and we were to write down our findings. We could draw them, and we were to describe what we were seeing. Now being it was a liberal arts college; I could write about the ocean floor and space. I was grateful. Afterall, Bruno Latour said we have never been modern. Anyone that knows that story knows that all things are really connected to each other in ways some might not see. But one purpose of Liberal Arts is to show us how connected things really are. Liberal Arts is a lot of fun that way. After we began talking about our findings, we laughed because we were all seeing the same things. So many of us were describing oceans, space, some even saw mountains. It turns out that we were looking at Pancreatic Cancer in its final stages, meaning someone’s final stage in life. And how funny that in a Liberal Arts science class we talked about the stage and how we also perform on them as people. It’s an ugly disease so many of us say. Well, as it turns out, it isn’t so ugly when you can magnify it several thousand times. But if you were in a room full of people that were in the final stages of Pancreatic Cancer, it isn’t so pretty.

Once again, I thought about Anne Frank. All the ugly going on and she could say, I’ve found that there is always some beauty left—in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help. She also said, I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains. Regardless of the microscope I am under, no matter how bad some people are toward me, I think of her. Life is so much simpler when I think about how her life turned out. Anne Frank still spoke of kindness and seeing through the ugly to see the beautiful in everyone. So often I walk outside my home and I look at all the trees. I see the bunny rabbits playing or the deer walking by. I can almost hear Anne Frank saying, The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be, and that God wishes to see people happy. I was once asked in a Philosophy class if I could meet a dead person who would it be?" It was a hard answer. There are so many. She was one of the people I thought about. The professor was talking to us all and asking us all that question without expecting a response. I must say that she was one of the first names and one that I couldn’t let go of in thought.

I also thought about Brutus. Now there’s a guy who betrayed a friend. The role of Brutus in the story about Julius Caesar is just as important as Caesar’s himself. I think Brutus needs a bar in Caesar’s Palace if they haven’t already created one. I’ve never seen one in there. Brutus is famous for betraying his friend, Julius Caesar. Some people know nothing about the story other than Julius Caesar was stabbed several times. Nobody likes the bad guy, but they are a big part of any story. You can never know good if you haven’t seen or heard about the bad in people. Brutus was a friend of Julius Caesar. William Shakespeare goes out of his way in the play explaining how important we know the difference between friends and foes. I think any friend is capable of betrayal. After all, we are all flawed individuals only saved here in the south by the grace of God. I wonder if people ever stop and think about that saying, Being stabbed in the back. How many people ever stop and think about Julius Caesar? Many people describe the ugliness in the world and in people as a cancer. I guess people describe it that way because Cancer is terminal. It causes a lot of pain and suffering. It’s a good fit. The problem with the ugliness of cancer is that under a microscope cancer is beautiful. It is the creation of lots of cancer cells created and spread through the body that makes one so ill. When we spread bad things about people, we create a hostility that may not be deserved. But either way, it is when something is spread and grows that it becomes more powerful. Cancer teaches us that. So did Adolf Hitler.

I would try explaining that people aren’t getting things right on some crucial issues, but it would fall on deaf ears. It’s hard explaining to people when they are being fooled. Mark Twain once said that people are easier fooled than convinced they are being fooled. Mark Twain nailed that. People smile and people fall for it. It started in Genesis for me. I was taught Satan picked his chosen animal because of its beauty. That always intrigued me because part of their curse afterwards includes not only living on their bellies, but also that they would be hated just by their site. Just think, something beautiful is hated just by its site. Imagine that. Sometimes we may hate something we see, but maybe we should reach inside ourselves and find out what might be more helpful. Hating haters doesn’t change hate. Sometimes, you are being fooled. Some of the biggest moments in history involve failure. But, before the failure, there was applause. People loved Adolf Hitler. People raised their hands and saluted him. I thought name calling was the worst thing possible. I was wrong. When people use the wrong terms when name calling is even worse. When you point the finger at someone and call it what it isn’t, that is history repeating itself. That is exactly how Adolf Hitler found his way into power.

#TAKEMEOUTTOTHEBALLGAME

President Ronald Regan said if fascism ever found its way here that it would come in the name of liberalism. I think it has arrived. The word government is used many ways. Our use of the word in America comes from a Latin verb meaning, to steer a ship. Our country is a vessel that many fear is being led astray from its course. I think it’s going to be an easy take over. It will probably be even easier than Adolf Hitler’s rise in Germany and this time I think it’s being setup to be a lot more successful. Donald Trump supporters have gone from being Nazis, racists, to now terrorists. And any company or person that donates money is now being accused of funding terrorism. One candidate got her crowd excited by threatening to have all the POTUS supporters picked up and hauled away to camps on the outskirts of her town. Sadly, she got a big applause for that. Ironically, she was just complaining about the conditions at the border referring to them as concentration camps. Calvin Coolidge said, The meaning of America is not to be found in a life without toil…freedom is not only bought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort. I have heard people refer to him as one of the most intelligent presidents of the twentieth century.

The flag is our constant reminder that there will be toil and we must give our all-in remittance. Her heraldic colors remind us of three important things as Americans; her red represents courage, her white represents purity, and her blue represents loyalty. And may we never forget her fifty stars that represent sovereignty over our fifty individual states. Many may not know this, but our flag has many guidelines for display. First, the flag should be displayed every day in good weather. However, Weatherproof flags may be displayed even in inclement weather. The flag is normally only displayed from sunrise to sunset. If you do display her after sunset, she must have a spotlight. We must fly our flag at half-staff when we mourn as a country, and she is to fly at half-staff on Memorial Day until noon. Before you fly her at half-staff, she must be hoisted to her peak for a moment and be raised to her peak once more before the flag is lowered for the day. To this day, my dad’s flag remains in its original packaging. She has never been touched by human hands and never shall. May we all remember each day the sacrifices made so that we may fly our flag making her rules dear to each heart.

Oh, the break from all the toil is one welcomed often. I believe the success of sports today and in the past was and is the need of Americans needing a time out from toil. But always before the break and pastime, we always have our anthem played and waive our flag. It reminds us that we are only on a break and that the toil over our nation will soon return. My father presented me with a huge diamond as a child. He gave me the baseball diamond. Now there is a diamond that promises happiness, a lot of excitement, and a never-ending bond. I went to a baseball game when I found my way to New York City for the first time since the death of my father. I have witnessed a homerun inside Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, and a homerun inside Yankee Stadium. The feeling is amazing. I watched the New York Mets make history with the most homeruns in a home game while playing the Oakland Athletics in 2004.

I watched the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox. They are the oldest and biggest rival in baseball. I cried as I saw that ball going behind the fence at Yankee Stadium. It was the closest I had felt to my dad since his passing. The only other time I remember crying in celebration over my father’s memory was the day that the letter from President Obama came commenting on the appreciation of the entire nation over my dad’s military service. Those are the three bittersweet times that for a moment I wasn’t sad, but instead, bittersweet while remembering the special bond my father and I shared. I saw my team score and I saw my team win. I can die happy now. The experience after the game was very touching as well. Many of us were wearing our NY Yankees jerseys while many were