There are of course positive and negatives about the truth.  I do miss having a character on the news that I could look up to and one that teared up on air when the president was shot, but I don’t miss the coffins.  Two distinct memories from childhood are:  1. Our teachers showing us the Watergate hearings and 2.  the bodies of the men killed in action in Vietnam being taken off the planes.  Walter was an early version of E.F. Hutton in our house.  When he spoke no one talked, and as the young men killed in action returned to the United States we cried and prayed for our country.

Odd that despite the scars of the later it was at least honest.  There was a link between what was happening to us as a country and what we were shown on television.  I don’t miss the sadness evoked by the seemingly endless number of slain soldiers being taken from the planes, but I do miss the feeling of being able to trust my government because someone was keeping an eye on them.  For a lot of us Watergate was the end of respecting the presidency,  but as an odd turn of events Watergate reassured us that the powerful were accountable (eventually).  The lesson today is that with enough money, and with an utter absence of morals, there is virtually no limit to how high you can rise.  Even worse than that is that no one is keeping them honest.

This one does not need an explanation.  Honestly no matter what I am doing I feel like I am over my head.  I know that sounds like a bad thing, but it isn’t really.

Since I am never in a position to feel like I know what I am doing.  I am in no danger whatsoever of overconfidence.

I envy people that can sing without making people scream…….

There are two things that make me sure there is a God.  The first is people that can sing well enough to make people cry, and the second thing is a tree.  I find enormous comfort in both.

I feel reassured by both that there is something or someone wise working in the background.

There is a point where unchecked empathy becomes a problem, and this certainly is one of my issues that makes the warning light go one.  I can’t help it.  They are like the only robots I trust, and as a rule they seem more determined to help society than most the people I know.

They really should have a union…although I guess unions are considered un-American now.

I am glad I am old enough to remember when “union” was not a dirty word.  It was nice to live in Michigan and know that your relatives made the cars that kept the country moving.  There is no amount of revisionist Republican history will change that memory for me.  People that inherited money can’t convince me that thousands of hardworking people that are proud of what they do are a danger to the country or the state they live in.

Ok I am sure it makes other countries crazy, and it does seem uniquely American at its dysfunctional core, but I think our ability to focus on the irrelevant is charming!  Why bother struggling with the big picture when you can stay busy with the little things?

It is just so us……