I have two in my home. I (me personally) am the first one. The conversations are frequent and usually start out by someone asking Kerri how an intelligent, great looking, hard working woman like herself could find her same self married to a goofy, loudmouth jerk like "him" (Me!). That kind of chatter could go on for days if I didn't start dragging people out of my house.

The second piece is a life size cardboard cut-out of our current President, Gee Dubya. As goofy, loudmouth-ish and jerky as I might be, I fall far behind the misunderestimated one in terms of feeding fires -- I don't agree with all of his policies or decisions and I can in fact think for myself -- So I love the ensuing conversations. I should note that while I *can* think for myself, I often don't. Surprise!

Sure, I'm fairly conservative (from a fiscal perspective) and I voted with pleasure for the man both times; But I'm not a capital "C" 'Conservative', towing the party line and all that jazz. It's fascinating to experience the reactions I get from both sides when folks walk in to The Garage and see him (G.W.B.) hanging on the wall. I get high-five attempts from Republicans and sneers from Democrats. The nice thing is, it gets us talking and in a minute or two folks realize that while I do have strong convictions, I'm not a card-carrying Elephant. So we get to actually "talk" without me having to bring up any specific subject.

Last night my better half (Kerri) put on a "going away" party for one of her co-workers and a bunch of her team showed up, including her old boss, Carol. I happen to really like Carol (likely the only boss my wife will ever have that I won't think is an idiot) but being an administrator in the health care field provides lots of opportunities to dash towards the Liberal side when fiscal matters arise. Carol saw that 2-D statue and made a real quick remark; I'm sure that she's known about my conservative tendencies from Kerri but aside from that, this was a fairly pure assumption route that I was all for whatever Georgie-boy recommends. Funny.

We got to talk for a few minutes and she was closer to many of my views than she could have imagined... vice versa for me. We got to talk without having the baggage of assumptions because from the get-go we both realized that we had made quick judgments about the other and when faced with that kind realization (that our first, for-sure thought was wrong), we were willing to listen, at least to save ourselves from being woefully wrong yet again. I didn't put that picture up for this purpose but the more I run into these situations, the more I'm thankful that my Mom bought and gave it to me.

I sincerely wish that every conversation I'll have with folks can be as PRODUCTIVE as those I've had when faced with folks who walk in and see my cut-out, whether they love or hate the man. It gets the dialog going and that's what we really need in this world. Or at least in The Garage.

Oh, and check this shit out: I have a chess board/table right next to the "conversation piece"... what better way to set your brain to work than to talk politics while playing chess? That picture and game board may be the path to solving the world's problems. Perhaps they should place that setup in the U.N.? That's a royalty-free observation. Go to work!