Politics

After a long and wearisome election season, most of us are thankful for
relative peace and quiet . Frayed and worn, we long for a perspective of clarity and truth in our daily lives.

Sociologists say that each of us belongs to a variety of “tribes”: political parties, religious or ethnic groups, regional cultures, families, and age cohorts to name a few. But we are rarely defined by just one tribal outlook these days. The bitter election climate has served to separate us into factions according to opinion polls, stereotypes, strong feelings about current issues and the pain of personal problems, to name a few.

The reality is that each of us is infinitesimally complex, full of positives and negatives far too intricate to ever be described in media shorthand.

As John Stewart said in his closing remarks at his October 30 Rally to Restore Sanity at the Washington Monument Mall. . .
“Most Americans don’t live their lives as Republicans or Democrats, but as people who are just a little bit late for something they have to do, often something they do not want to do. But they do it. Some may paint the nation as fragile and torn by hate, but the truth is . . .we work together to get things done every damn day. . .There will always be darkness, and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land. Sometimes it is just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together.”

Personally, I will try to overcome my tribal biases and accept each individual person or public figure I encounter as being something more than the narrow presentation the media portrays. I long for the restoration of sanity, the achievement of genuine working together in government for the benefit of civilization.. . just a few baby steps toward peace on earth.

Reminiscing

On a recent visit to my aunt in Tennessee, we were reminiscing about family stories from the past. My father, her brother, used to tell about participating in a WPA project to build a lake for water supply to the Missouri State School for the mentally retarded near Marshall. He took his team of red mules, "Woodrow" and "Kate", to join others in dredging the area for the lake. At night he boarded them in a barn nearby. One night Woodrow and Kate were able to open the barn door and they went back to the farm where they lived. . .10 miles away.

The Great Depression created a hardy breed of people. "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" was a motto for my ancestors and many others.