The title of today’s post is what you get if Carl Jung sang backup for Stephen Stills and Neil Young on Buffalo Springfield’s 1966 single “For What It’s Worth,” often mistakenly called by its opening line, “Something’s happening here.”  This past weekend synchronicity, Jung’s theory about the connection between seemingly unrelated events, did, in fact, run deeper than normal.  Sometimes that intersection is just interesting.  But at its most potent, it explains the inexplicable.

The first event was a visit to the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, South Carolina during which we talked with one of the curators Will Balk, who previously owned the local bookstore where Conroy would hold his first signings after the release of each book.  His friendships included, not just Pat, but several of the author’s six siblings who occasionally visited his shop and now the Literary Center.

Not surprisingly, the most often asked question of family members is, “Was your father (Donald Conroy, the model for “the Great Santini”) really as bad as portrayed in the novel?”  According to Balk, they would reply, “It was 10 times as bad.”  His sister Kathy once said, “I would have loved to have had the father in that book, but that’s not who we had.” (Source: 2015 interview in the Charlotte Observer)  It was only after Pat’s youngest brother Tom committed suicide did Donald Conroy realize the physical and mental torture to which he subjected his children and its impact on their lives.

But there was another side of Donald Conroy.  He was a highly decorated Air Force fighter pilot.  And as my wife suggested on the ride back to Hilton Head after visiting the center, this was the environment in which he was most comfortable.  He could be himself and not be viewed as an aberration, or worse, “a monster.”  The strict order and discipline required of a fighter pilot were a better match for Donald Conroy’s core beliefs than the compassion and affection needed by his children.

Which brings me to the second event, the following exchange between CNN reporter Jim Acosta and Donald Trump during Trump’s visit Sunday to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the Korean peninsula.

Acosta: What is it with your coziness with some of the dictators and autocrats at these summits?
Trump: I get along with everybody, except you people … I get along with (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin, I get along with Mohammed (bin Salman) from Saudi Arabia.

Like the Great Santini, Donald Trump is in his element when hobnobbing with the Putins, bin Salmans and Kim Jung Uns of the world.  They reinforce his personal moral (or some might say amoral) compass.   When Donald Conroy had a choice between being the best fighter pilot or best father, he gravitated toward the former because that was how he was hardwired.  Every time Trump has a chance to choose between behaving like an autocrat or a champion of democracy, he too chooses the former.  Like “Santini,” his circuits are permanently soldered.

What is perhaps the saddest commentary is the fact Donald Conroy never considered it a choice until it was too late.  Nor will Trump.  As Popeye always reminded us, “I am what I am and that’s all what I am.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP