The past week has been chock full of communication challenges on multiple fronts. Rangely school board candidate Brad Casto emailed his Q&A well before the deadline for last week’s paper, but the email never came through, and a 2018 email from County Assessor Renae Nielson with an attached letter appeared as if it was fresh and new (and we published it, by mistake). At least one bundle of papers had half of page 5 blacked out (if you got one like that we’re glad to replace it with a good copy). A print order arrived missing almost half the order. Our copier unexpectedly ran out of toner cartridges with no replacement on hand. Toss in some personal communication issues and it’s been an interesting week.
We’re pointing fingers at “Mercury in retrograde,” an astronomical phenomenon that occurs about three times every year and appears to cause just the kind of glitches we’ve been experiencing. Is there any validity to the theory? Some say yes, some say no. Placing blame on a planet is kind of like invoking Murphy’s Law… it provides a reason for things that seemingly have no reason, and that give us a little comfort. It might just be the power of suggestion at work, making us notice things arounds us and categorizing them under a planetary blip. Whatever it is, I’ll be glad when this particular round comes to an end on Oct. 18.
Does it matter, either way, if a planet is to blame? Not really. We still have to deal with the challenges that arise. We’ve all got little superstitions we cling to, whether it’s a “lucky shirt” we always wear when our favorite team is playing or old wives’ tales about the weather. If having some kind of explanation — even if it’s just superstition — makes us feel a little less distraught, what’s the harm? In fact, it might be beneficial… blaming a faraway planet over which we have no control is a lot better than losing our tempers and attacking the people around us (over which we also have no control, but it’s easier to take out our frustrations on something or someone we can see).
