Reading Tea Leaves

Reading Tea Leaves

This political cycle has us all so flummoxed that we are left to read tea leaves and coffee grounds in order to divine the future of our nation and planet. Whenever I use a colloquialism or metaphor like “reading tea leaves”, I get curious about where that phrase came from. Tea drinking dates back to China and the first evidence of it comes from some tea leaves found in the tomb of an ancient emperor dating back to about 100 B.C. Alcohol actually goes back another three thousand years before that, but coffee is a relatively new concoction that can only be traced back about 1,000 years to someplace in the Arabic world, most likely Yemen. I guess its logical that while early man was experimenting with cooking, somebody would toss some miscellaneous herbs or ground seeds into hot water and tried it until they found something that appealed to the palate. I suspect that it is less than coincidental that both tea and coffee are stimulants, where alcohol is a depressant that acts craftily like a stimulant in the opening scene of its use. I guess people consumed lots of things that were not mod altering, but it is not strange to me that they stuck with and effectively addicted themselves to the ones that created the greatest sensations, either upward or downward.

Early man was a lot less fussy about what he consumed, by necessity. So, the tea and coffee that he drank was unfiltered and the remains of the solids stayed in the cup in which they were poured and drunk. The residue surely caught the attention of the first tea drinker, who probably just thought that he was glad he stopped drinking when he did and went and rinsed out the cup for its next use. Somewhere back in China, there were some concubines who had too little to do and lingered over their tea to the point of staring at the remains of their favorite hot beverage. In them, they imagined that they saw shapes and symbols that are always the fodder of storytelling. Random shapes always tend to intrigue us. I recall a favorite Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown and Linus are lying on a hillside staring up at he sky. Charlie Brown asks the precocious Linus if he ever sees things in the clouds. Linus replies that he does indeed occasionally see things and points up saying that he had just noticed what looked to him like a scene from the stoning of the Apostle Paul. He turns to Charlie Brown and asks if he ever sees things in the clouds. Charlie Brown sheepishly says that he was going to say he saw a ducky, but never mind.

What this tells me is that people with great imaginations use th impetus of symbols and random shapes to spin great tales consistent with their imaginations. Thus began the fortune tellers of ancient China and their use of tea leaves for prognosticating the future of whomever had drunk said tea and left behind said leaves in the bottom of their cup. Meanwhile, someone in the Middle East was soon to start the same practice with coffee grounds. I’m not sure whether tea leaves or coffee grounds have a more flourishing tendency for expression, but they have both been in active use in that regard for some time, time enough to be treated metaphorically. Of course, with the advent of the more convenient tea bags and strainers, technology has once again quashed creativity, perhaps leading to the invention of things like the crazy eight ball fortune telling toy.

Meanwhile, back on the hilltop, we are watching and listening to all the flip-flopping going on about our presidential candidates. The battle is still mostly focused on Joe Biden and his mental fragility, but Trump is certainly getting his share of criticism as well. Both are being accused of lying to the voting public in one way or another. Trump, of course, is a serial and perhaps pathological liar, currently doing all that he can to distance himself from the very platform he has been espousing, whether called Project 2025, Agenda 47 or the newest republican policy platform, just released. While denying any connection to it or them and even knowledge about who even authored it, his name appears over 300 times and the catch-phrase Make America Great Again is the official tag line. None of that is surprising, given that these documents have all been authored by people who have been and still are the mainstay of the Trump team, including convicted and incarcerated felons like Peter Navarro.

Biden, on the other hand is also being accused of lying to the public mostly about his mental and physical fitness. In the era of photographic and video campaigning, it is far easier to disguise a weakness of character versus a weakness of aging, so Biden is getting most of the attention these days. The current kerfuffle comes via a Wall Street Journal article claiming that Biden’s aides have stage managed him for over a year to hide his frailty and failing acuity. As Congressional members, most notably the progressives who were always at risk of pushing back against Biden due in particular to his handling of the war in Gaza, have verbalized their support for him, others who are considered fair arbiters of the truth are coming out with pleas for his demurral. The latest is from Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado, who has been a strong supporter in the past. Then, this morning, Nancy Pelosi, perhaps the most recognizable Democratic figure in Congress, who stepped down recently from her Speakership on account of her advancing age of 84, made some comments on Morning Joe that implied that she felt Biden still has a decision to make despite his repeated comments that he is staying the course. This is being interpreted as a strong message for him to consider dropping out. Also this morning, actor and big Biden fundraiser, George Clooney, who is one of those actors like Tom Hanks, who commands a great deal of respect among Americans, said, pointing out that blank, that Biden’s showing at a fundraiser three weeks ago was more like Debate Joe than the Biden of the prior campaigns. He said that as much as he loves Joe, that he should step down for the sake of the Party and the country.

Every Democratic member of Congress is now walking the tightrope that Nancy Pelosi walked this morning. They have to show support for their beloved leader, but they must also consider the reality of aging and the possibility that Joe may not be the best arbiter on how capable he is in staying the course for a campaign and four more years. In theory, having his run, win and then step down in favor of Kamala would be no different in outcome than just having Kamala take over the campaign and having him declare his retirement now, but in a political sense the two are in no way equivalent. So, we are all left sitting here reading every cup of tea leaves and coffee grounds that come our way, wondering how this will all end between now and the Democratic National Convention, when the pot will be boiled down.