This entry was posted on Saturday, October 28th, 2006 at 7:17 am and is filed under Family & Friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Morning all:
This morning I got up a few minutes earlier than usual—could it be preparation for tonight’s roll-back to Daylight Time? In any case, it does make me ask whether or not there is a magic ‘crossover’ time from tea to coffee. In the afternoon and into the evening I’ll drink tea, but in the morning I don’t (unless traveling in the UK). So when does that exact moment occur?
I traveled more over the last few weeks than I had in some time, the final week being out of country. So, this week I was at home and realized just how pleasant it had been the week prior with absolutely no political spin messages being pounded into my head constantly.
I have seldom been as disgusted as I am with the ongoing stream of political junk thrown out at us. And I am firmly convinced that the absolutely negativity of the ads, coupled with the consistent stream of negative news reporting is doing real and long term harm to the nation. The news and political campaign’s negativity mostly comes under the guise of “balance” with use of the “but” word; i.e. “the sun is rising into a brilliant clear blue sky, but in the meantime this will cause sun delay problems on your commute and darkness can be expected to return later.”
“Crazy as a wedge.” One of my favorite periods in our history deals with the Great Depression and the wonderful stories that come out of that era. A favorite choice, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men carries a Depression era theme that no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible the situation is that this was America and through it all there shines an inherent optimism and “can do” attitude, one which can not be erased. The character George speaks to Lennie, who is huge and also mentally challenged, “you’re crazy as a wedge”. Tough as it was, Lennie held on to a dream of eventually owning a piece of land and raising rabbits.
Americans held fast to a dream of a better future, be it land, opportunity, or life itself. Americans became known as a people always affirming the strength of the human spirit.
In fact it has been this optimism that the rest of the world has been in awe of and what brought many of our parents here. It was this part of the American dream which allowed us to fight a previous “axis of evil”, over 60 years ago, without there being any doubt of eventual victory.
I am afraid that the stream of negative media we are bombarded with and its constant and consistently ongoing “doom and gloom” message that are chipping away at our nations’ sense of inherent optimism. If I am correct then this is more than sad. If true it would mean that for the first time we, collectively, will lose the belief that our children will be able to enjoy a future that betters the one we have.
On a whole different note comes this bit from my time in Lima, Peru. Part of the meetings included a trade show. The hotel – Marriott-Lima – is a brand new and gorgeous complex. What it does not have – whoops, just a slight oversight – is any exposition space. This meant that the month prior to our arrival hotel staff worked diligently to build a temporary floor and roof over the outdoor tennis courts and pool. This was not as crazy as it seems since the climate is quite cool and desert-like.
As it turns out, the space I had rented for my stand was one of those placed directly over the pool area—still filled with water (my humidity twisted literature confirmed this).
You can now safely say that you know someone who has actually “walked on water.”
Make it a great week everyone; work for a brighter future.
Cheers,
Dirk
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