Pillar of Salt
Allow me to introduce you to a neighbor of mine: Mr. Robert Wenzlau, who lives in the quite posh neighborhood of Crescent Park in my fair city of Palo Alto, California. Bob is a pillar of the community. He is a husband, a father, and a grandfather. He is 67 years old, but he is not retired. He is still the CEO and Founder of Terradex, an environmental services company he started, which aligns with decades of work he has performed to use science to help the environment. Here is Bob receiving one of his many awards and recognitions.
And here's his mugshot, taken this week. We'll get back to that.
As I mentioned, Mr. Wenzlau created Terradex, a thriving and well-funded company here in Palo Alto, and although I don't know the man, he lives just a couple of blocks away from me.
He has all the markings of a successful person. He's self-made, lives in a multi-million-dollar home, and has raised a family. At the company he founded, he's at the top of the heap, naturally.
Plus, he's had no shortage of honors from the environmental protection industry.
This doesn't mean he's been some picketing hippie with no money. On the contrary, he lives in the comfort of suburbia in this home which, in a tremendous tidbit of irony, is right next door to one of the most successful real estate agents in town. In a moment, you'll see why the aforementioned neighbor is going to be none too pleased at the instant diminishment his home is going to suffer in value.
Until a week ago, however, things were looking pretty posh for Bob.
That is, until the shit utterly hit the fan.
The local news is slathered with this tale of child pornography, lewd propositions to a 12 year old, and the fantasized sexualization (by way of pictures and audio recordings) of the family dog and unnamed members of the family. And, yes, I did say the family dog.
Now, allow me to jump in and say this post is in no way some kind of schadenfreude or finger-pointing. The man's been accused, not convicted (although things don't look good..............) and, as I said, I don't know this fellow at all, in spite of being proximal. It's still sad to see someone who has spent 67 years building up what by most objective measures would be considered a totally successful life and utterly torching it, just to get his kink on.
I mean, we're all human, and most of us have weaknesses and frailties (although I believe very few creeps into the realm of sexualizing youngsters), but that's where things like self-discipline, self-control, and self-improvement are supposed to activate. That's why they're virtues. Because, whatever demons you're fighting, you've got to dig up the better parts of yourself and win the fight. Otherwise, the results could be catastrophic and permanent.
This will all wend its way through the legal system over many months, I'm sure, but Terradex swiftly decided to upgrade and maintain their website, since they're probably getting more traffic than before.
And, on Twitter, the lighthearted and convivial good wishes..........
.........have been replaced by something which, I guess, really says it all.
