Armstrong Had Vanished.

Syme had vanished. A morning came, and he was missing from work; a few thoughtless people commented on his absence. On the next day nobody mentioned him. On the third day Winston went into the vestibule of the Records Department to look at the notice board. One of the notices carried a printed list of the members of the Chess Committee, of whom Syme had been one. It looked almost exactly as it had looked before – nothing had been crossed out – but it was one name shorter. It was enough. Syme had ceased to exist; he had never existed.

This passage from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four came to mind when I read in the newspaper yesterday about Lance Armstrong who'd won the Tour de France cycling race seven times getting stripped of those titles and when future lists of the winners are released, name number one (which would be Armstrong's) will be missing. I understand that because it's been found and proven beyond a reasonable doubt but a bit after the fact in my opinion (which is like a nose, everyone has one),that Armstrong was using performance enhancing drugs to give him an edge in competition, he's losing titles and endorsements left and right and center; I appreciate that.

But what is the next logical step? Not that I give a tinker's … um, damn about cycling or indeed most professional sports (call it a character flaw, call it as my brother-in-law once did what I do because I have nothing to get excited about) but a person's professional life getting wiped away at the stroke of a pen, or the ruling of a court – is unsettling to me. Going to jail is one thing (Armstrong hasn't yet), but getting obliterated from something or in the life of someone you'd given the lion's share of your time and effort to making happen or bear fruit with is not something I think I could live with, or would WANT to live because every avenue to an abundant life, humanly speaking, would be closed to me.

To ease your mood now, let me go into what's happening on our house – about twenty minutes ago as I'm writing this at 12:49 pm Central Standard Time, I got a call from Mike our handyman and the carpet's beginning to be laid down in our house today. Lee our electrician will be getting done in our house (says he will be anyway, but I'm afraid for various reasons he won't be getting a reference from us) as he works on two others, so come this time next week, which will be Halloween, we will be ready to move. Back. In. I'm rubbing my hands with a bit of glee as I type that; I trust I can be forgiven for it.

Hallelujah, and let a part of me remain! David