Total Wealth

(A tale of two political figures – one fictional as well as accidental, one real and very intentional.) As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. This week I re-watched the brilliantly constructed satire, “Being There.”  (A 1979 film directed by Hal Ashby, adapted from the 1971 novel written by Jerzy Kosiński.)  Peter Sellers plays a simple-minded gardner with no social or intellectual skills, being essentially raised by television sets and the plants he tended.  When forced into new situations such as befriending a billionaire and meeting the president, he is mistaken for a genius of sorts.  “Chance the Gardner” becomes “Chauncey Gardiner,” his simple sentences interpreted as deep metaphors about the state of the nation.