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C'Mon, do you think we're complete idiots, or do you think we just have the attention span of your average puppy? "Oh, look! A squirrel!"

The former Vice President of the United States is coming out with a book. It is being touted with great sensationalism as a "tell-all" about the inner workings of the administration he ran – uh, I mean the one to which he belonged.

He is casting all kinds of aspersions at his former colleagues and friends. Does he think that we don't realize that the hint of scandal is the only thing intriguing? Granted, there are there are people for whom that would be a draw, but I am sure that most of us can see right through it – and I am fairly certain that the former VP cannot possibly be stupid enough not to know that we can all see through it. So, is he stupid, condescending, or just cynical?

This was brought to mind this morning when I was driving to work. As I was sitting at a light, waiting for it to turn green, I noticed a guy wearing one of the most obvious rugs I have seen in quite some time. Actually, I'd have to go all the way back to my college days to think of a more obvious rug – to a professor who wore a bright red wig even though the red in his facial hair and monk's fringe had long-since faded to only a rusty gray.

But this guy was standing there waiting for the light to change and it wasn't just the fact that it was coiffed into an improbable configuration (…would this be a "coifiguration?") that caught my eye. It was that it slipped in the wind and the guy reached-up to adjust it with a clear look of consternation. He then thought better of it, tried to look like he was tapping his head – like he had just had a brainstorm – and then looked around to see if the wig-flop had been witnessed.

I swear he looked dead at me – a look of knowing resignation on his face. He then gave a little smile and then turned back to look at the walk light; he was pretending it never happened as if by doing so he could make it not have happened.

This is what brought to mind the news story I saw this morning on the news. It was the ability this guy had to convince himself that he could change the past by pretending that it didn't happen. I wonder if there is a self-delusion gene or if we can all fall prey to this self-delusional tendency.

Or, perhaps I have that backward – perhaps they cannot be honest with us because they are incapable of being honest with themselves.

Wherever you are, I hope that you're honest with yourself and those you deal with!

Don Bergquist – August 29, 2011 – Home, Lakewood, Colorado, USA