This morning at the breakfast table my lovely wife said to me, "We need to buy some guns. We need to stock up on ammunition."
This week in Congress retiring Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning is blocking an appropriations bill that would extend unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. His job affords him free medical care and lifetime postage, and he is thumbing his nose at hurting people and flipping them off on the way to the elevator.
People are angry. They can't get jobs, the roads and bridges are crumbling and the trains are antiquated, and the people in charge of making decisions and providing solutions are grousing about missing a college basketball game. Jim Bunning says, "Tough shit." He's not worried. He has a fine home and lots of money.
It's frustrating to many, because they watch the news and see we have money to help Haiti and Chile, and we print money to finance an unending war in the Middle East, but the ordinary citizens of this country are living on $325 a week and wondering how much longer they can go on.
My granddaughter Kourtney reads about the earthquakes and disasters and historically extreme winter weather and she thinks we're nearing the end of the world. She's in sixth grade now, twelve years old. What a world that children have to carry such thoughts in their heads. They hear the whispers of their parents. A knot of uncertainty never leaves their stomachs.
One day soon a father living this mean and stark existence is going to get angry in a way he can no longer control. He's going to look across town to the hills where the fine homes, the homes with the seven big screen tvs and the bathtubs that look like the spa of a prince, and he's going to think about how easy it would be to take everything the rich man has. Morality won't mean anything to him any more. Civilization and society won't. Society has failed him. And in the primitive part of his brain the law of survival will take over, and he will spew all of his anger and empty his rage out in the street.
Jim Bunning has flipped off the wrong people. He may touch off the road rage that clogs every freeway in America, and sends the posh Senate elevators crashing to the basement. The earthquake of rage and frustration that hits this country will be a magnitude never seen on earth.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
4 comments:
Dad---
I don't know about the end of the world, but you have to admit the science of nature has been quite strange lately.
We've been taking Kourty to counseling to help deal with the deployment. It's been helping a little she says. Tom goes with her which is nice. They've been spending nights watching movies and playing video games together before he leaves. He went to MT over the weekend and got his new tatoos before the deployment. Ethan went with him because Kourt had a late dance practice so she couldn't go. He got Lizzy's name tatooed under Ethans on his chest, and a star added to his EOD badge (matches his time in service and unit stuff). He also got Kourty's initials tatooed on his ankle but changed it to KRA and when he showed it to her on Monday when they got back he told her it was because she was his daughter too and he wanted her to know that was how he felt about her. Cutest thing ever, I cried of course even though I knew beforehand that he was getting it done. Kourty cried too. He probably did too, but wouldn't say so anyway! By the way went with Elizabeth Marie for her name, Marie is Tom's mom middle name and we have an ultrasound scheduled to Wednesday so the doctor can print some new pictures for Tom to take with him. We are confirming the sex too, so it really better be a girl or Tom's going to have a really funny tatoo!!!!
Me
The science of nature has been quite strange lately, and in fact that is my next blog topic. Tom is well on his way to being America's "most decorated" soldier. It's wonderful to hear about the bond that's grown between him and Kourtney.
Have the two of you seen "The Hurt Locker"? I'd be interested in Tom's take on it, whether it's worse seeing from an expert's perspective. It would probably be too worrying for you.
Love,
Dad
Dad--
The boys hate the Hurt Locker. They say it's an insult to EOD techs everywhere. From an entirely movie perspective it's not bad but if you're going to watch it don't think any of it is real. They don't even wear their uniforms right!! Tom says one of the more famous scenes (where the main guy find a bunch of bombs in the sand all tied together and he pulls them up at once) is impossible. The kind of bomb they are showing each weight about 125 pounds, there are about eight of them, and his bomb suit is about another 150 pounds. Pretty strong guy to lift it all up by himself right? I haven't seen the whole thing. We had a viewing party when it was released but everyone fell asleep after throwing popcorn at the screen in anger....
Me
Steff--
Interesting about The Hurt Locker. A movie that got all kinds of praise for realism and power apparently didn't get essential details right, and Hollywood rewards it chiefly to snub James Cameron.
I want to see The Blind Side and Crazy Heart.
Have a great day and hug my grandbabies.
Love,
Dad
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