I had a break between meetings this afternoon, so I caught Kerry's concession and Bush's acceptance speeches in our company cafeteria. In the 40 minutes between the speeches, I read a project proposal, but my thoughts drifted, and my low grade head cold, which didn't help my somber mood, demanded I take a DayQuill LiquiCap pill. There was great irony in this act as many others, including my candidate of hope, were swallowing a hard pill today.

The shiny pill remembered to me an essay I read a while back on the Philosophy of the Matrix where the choosing of colored pills in that movie represent acceptance or denial of truth. Here's some of that text:

Morpheus contacts Neo just as the machines (posing as sinister 'agents') are trying to keep Neo from finding out any more. When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."

...

The question then is not about pills, but what they stand for in these circumstances. The question is asking us whether reality, truth, is worth pursuing. The blue pill will leave us as we are, in a life consisting of habit, of things we believe we know. We are comfortable, we do need truth to live. The blue pill symbolises commuting to work every day, or brushing your teeth.

The red pill is an unknown quantity. We are told that it can help us to find the truth. We don't know what that truth is, or even that the pill will help us to find it. The red pill symbolises risk, doubt and questioning. In order to answer the question, you can gamble your whole life and world on a reality you have never experienced.

By the sometimes absurd election process that our democracy mandates, a majority have chosen the blue pill for our country. That's tough medicine, and half of us are left wondering who will offer us a red pill in four years.

- mike lee - baltimore