Sometimes a small spill prompts us to spot clean an object, and we suddenly realize how dirty that object has become.

Dust, dirt, and sediment have a tendency to build slowly — so slowly that we don’t even notice…

…until we clean that little area.

Then, we get a very clear sense of how bad things have gotten.

It’s easy to do a little test — spot cleaning the hood of a car, the porch railing, a window.

It’s a lot harder to test things that aren’t remedied with detergent and elbow grease.

Politics. Physical health. Social justice. Civility.

Consider the valuable mental exercise of imagining these things at their best. Pure and clean.

If we can do that, we can begin to assess how bad it has gotten, and what we might do to clean it up.