Archive: Opinions

It's one of those 'in between' times, in a few ways. I write this just prior to Christmas Day, and you'll read this between that holiday and New Year's. The kids are off a full two weeks (who thought that was OK?) and we straddle the old and the new in these last days of 2019. Dickens' words "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" have an almost eternal appropriateness but perhaps more so as this 2019 slinks off into history.

The political gene in me is so worn, so tired of the warfare being waged in the media and waged within our democratic republic. Our institutions that have withstood civil war, economic panics and depression, two and a half impeachments, assassinations and world wars seem to totter under the weight of ego and superficiality. Microphones, Twitter accounts and TV spotlights are magnets to egomaniacs who were elected to serve the common good (the commonweal, in ancient terminology) and instead they preen, posture and hyperbolize to serve none but themselves, unable to form rational thought or sentences without the same old political pablum and drivel that passes for political discourse.

The common person who works, plays, deals with life on a daily basis throws up their hands in frustration, while politics have become verboten in polite company (the words politic and polite have the same root, you know: 'offend no one'). The bumper sticker from 2016 may have said it all: "Giant Meteor in 2016...Just get this election over with". Politics, what nowadays passes for it, is beginning to feel like the reason many people watch NASCAR: for the crashes.

2019 was, in many ways, a very discouraging year, and in the larger sense, it was a lot more discouraging than many in America's past. It was fearful, and worrisome. To echo Benjamin Franklin when questioned by a citizen after the Constitutional Convention in 1787: "A republic, madam, if you can keep it."

But, I am reminded, these last few dark days, of a bit of advice in reference to individual behavior, which seems appropriate for us as a country. A wise person told me, in early 'recovery', that two personal attributes (or attitudes/behaviors) could help an individual through times of self-pity: "Oh woe is me", or feeling sorry for oneself. The attitude of gratitude, and a sense of trust.

Now, these two attributes don't come easily when things look bad (or worse) for you, for me, for our stumbling country. But, as I thought about it personally, gratitude can certainly lift a few burdens, some darkness, from the soul, individually or perhaps even collectively. Making a gratitude list for yourself can be uplifting and often surprising. A gratitude list for our country can also be (and do) the same thing. It's actually simple, but 'simple' never meant 'easy'. It's worth it, and it works. Try making a short gratitude list for yourself. What better way and time to do it than the last week of the year? And if you're really into it, make a list of things that America can still be grateful for, too. You first, though, to get into the spirit of things. Share it, by the way.

Trust? In this day and age? Precisely, as Fred Kahn and other interviewees often said to me. Trust is difficult to come by, but perhaps this is just as much a matter of faith. We can and must work on trust. Trust that morally and emotionally we have the strength, ability and willingness to 'hang in there' with the thought, as Molly Ivans once opined: "Nothin' But Good Times Ahead". Yes, things seem tough for our country, hell in a hand basket, so they say, but we trust that we are still the best answer for human dignity and personal growth. Mankind's last great hope, n'est pas?

We, as individuals and as a country (an idea still a'borning), can and will survive, with gratitude for past and present, and trust in the present and future. It's a darn good possibility that there's a lesson or two ( and there are those who say that there are no mistakes, only lessons waiting to be learned) in this mess, somewhere. We can be armed with a gratitude list, and trust in the present and future, with a faith that our ancestors clung to in dark times, often much darker than these current weeks and months of seemingly never-ending turmoil and uncertainty.

This too, shall pass, and I'll be grateful to endure it. I trust it will make us as a country stronger. And hope that all of you have a wonderful new year, filled with faith, hope, gratitude and personal fulfillment. My gratitude list begins with you.