Dear America,

The thing about experimentation is there has to be a willingness to fail, endure a little backfire, perhaps even get thrown off the horse and have one's backside bruised. But the beauty of it, if one is courageous enough to grin and bare it, is the possibility of success -- whether through an absolute paradigm shift or simply shedding new light upon an age old subject.  If we are really lucky, however, we may even gather a greater understanding not just with regards to tightly held beliefs about opposing views, but something even better -- a deeper awareness of our selves.

Clearly, speaking for myself, we find it all too easy these days dishing it out into the blagosphere; it becomes our means of getting the story told, the villain declared and captured, the evil portrayed and defeated, and coming to a complete and happy ending. 

But no fairy tale would be complete without a magic mirror instantly appearing out of nowhere, reflecting who we really are, or a fire breathing dragon to remind us of the dangers and trappings of putting yourself out there, exposing our thoughts and dreams and ideas to the world at the risk of everything, if also donning a few personal biases along the way.

Just before the holidays, G was asked to experiment with a relative.  It was proposed by "the other side" as a bridge to understanding each other, even though the packaging of such an offer was accompanied with a host of general assumptions already made, if you will, dating back a lifetime.  The gathering of the previously held beliefs should have been enough, what with the little bit of smoke already starting to fester... And yet, what did I do?  I responded.  Taking what was said very personally, I retorted privately, as well as used the overture as a means for supplying fuel for my Gthing.  I vented.  I stoked.  I vented and I stoked.  And then it happened. 

Experimentation in the face of danger only seems to create more destruction, more opposition, more discord; and all of a sudden we are surrounded by a raging wildfire burning out of control.

What is a shame really, hindsight being what it is, is allowing the kindling to spark; that is my regret, not having enough self control to walk away. 

Another thing that is a shame, is when people make anonymous comments about the flap back and forth without really knowing the whole story.  Actually, in my eyes, anytime people make an anonymous comment about anything is a sign of weakness; but if you feel that strongly about something, there should be enough bravado back behind you to claim it as your own -- especially when it comes to making a criticism. 

G is unafraid and all about speaking up -- even to the point where I risk sounding ignorant or misinformed or out of touch -- but it is ALL ME making the call each and every time, out loud and without remorse. I take responsibility for all of it; and make no mistake, my love of a fair debate about anything runs hot most of the time and welcome all to take part in that kind of repartee. 

For better or worse, real debate is what made America...and made it pretty great if you ask me (but of course, no body's asking) but, taking anonymous pot shots, not so much -- now THAT is, how do you say, bullsh**.

The thing is -- while I can't seem to say enough about it this morning-- if you are gonna jump into the fire, be prepared to get a little scorched; that goes for all of us -- but mostly TO ME!  A lesson learned the hard way, is still a lesson learned.

My story telling doesn't always work -- even if my point was directed more to the larger scale of things going on in America these days -- as in my last blog.  Clearly, we all have our issues; while the stark reality is, we must ask ourselves what has changed so much in America that has made the last fifty years so destructive for us all?  As any honest to goodness look at ourselves would tell us everything we didn't really want to know, but we're all the better for it -- the first step is asking the question.  Why is America unraveling right before our eyes?

AS evidence in the last couple of days, attempting to make a point by holding a mirror up in front of someone else may not always work on a personal level -- at least not without hitting a few nerves or hurting someones feelings; but it is absolutely required of us as Americans in order see the changes we need to make, or see perhaps where we went wrong, and that was the only point I really had in mind.  But for me to use bits and peices of another person's story as color for the masses, it only begs for negative attention from the wolves, anonymous or otherwise.

So, too, taking personal responsibility goes both ways; in most cases, anytime we come from a polarized, general assumption bearing negative connotations we must be forewarned, as we have already burned ourselves by lighting the match.

Such as -- saying, "liberals tend to evolve their beliefs and their ideas based more on 'lived experiences' than established family/religious/ideological traditions" or going back in time with reference to how someone was raised saying "when I was a republican, I believed that we were morally superior! and wouldn't doubt that you and your father have that same belief today"...

making politics PERSONAL is when feelings get rubbed the wrong way...stoke it long enough and voila, fire.

My mistake was getting sucked into the spontaneous combustion to begin with, a force destined for immediate and utter destruction and nothing less.

Admittedly, this is where G has made many of her errors -- jumping into something when all common sense is telling you to walk away, not listening to the inner voice of reason and sound judgment, not snuffing out the overly zealous -- and usually misplaced -- ego who's chief goal is retaliation... oops I did it again and hitting myself on the forehead numerous times as we speak.

Our founding fathers didn't agree on many things.  What they did agree on was a country based on the principles of law, not of man (because we are that stupid and ignorant and corruptible and full of ourselves), in order to create the best environment promoting order and civility and prosperity, even if that meant countless debates to get there. 

It was all about what we have in common -- and projecting just how these principles and values OF the PEOPLE could be translated to a law and governance that ALL people could benefit equally and fairly all the way down the line and all through the years.  It was not a compilation of outlining our differences under restrictive law, as heaven's to Betsy how would that work and also be a pleasant place to live and raise a family; but quite the contrary, it was the melding of an entire community in agreement -- finding the unilateral beliefs, the common values, and thereby clearly transcending the differences altogether-- to create a republic to protect and promote the prosperity of people at all levels under common law.

In order to create the more perfect union, some how, some way, we had to come together in unison as one people; and now, in order to keep it, we must be able to uphold the system in place, keep the debate focused on the common ground, and hold to the principles that protect freedom for all, even when it's hard, or turns ugly, whichever comes first.

But the truth is we all do it; we all stoke the system focusing on the polarities of policy and ideology -- the right and the left; conservative and liberal, republican and democrat; certainly, how else will we "know any better" if we aren't clear on all the many ways we disagree, right?  One thing's for sure, when we speak with respect, it works; when we fall from civility it looks more like:

• Jeanne Garofalo saying the tea partiers are "all a bunch of racists"
• Nancy Pelosi referring to townhallers as "Nazis" or "AstroTurf"
• a distant relative thinking one side evolves while the other side falls to the dark ages 

No matter how you look at it -- it is all reckless fire burning out of the mouths of a cowardly dragon unless you are willing to have a real debate about it, openly and honestly and without preconditions -- and of course, willing for it to be on C-Span so to speak for all the world to see.

But where are we today? We are watching our government bicker like relatives -- calling each other names and the people out of touch, offering up our petty differences as kindling, stoking the fire of division, leaving us to make due in a scarred and damaged terrain, knowing it may take years for the new growth to come back and show real hope and change for a future. 

Truth hurts -- in more ways than one and all the way around; while that which exists as our reality masquerading around as bipolar heroins battling out with fire and sword only works best in make believe; at the very least, we can be grateful that most of us raised in America learn to pick our self up, brush our self off, and get back on the horse (the difference being now who owns the horse, of course).

I want to live in an America
where we all own our own horse
so that when we see fire
we can get up on our horse
and ride
as fast as we can
in the opposite direction.

Or at best,
come together for one and all
and guard our castle, our land, our freedom, our liberty
and put out the fire
no matter what cost or how many names we are called in a day.

Make it a Good Day, G

Last thought for the day --
in a manner of addressing all relative discourse --
how can telling me I'm ass-backwards on my horse
right out of the starting gate
get us anywhere but on a bridge to nowhere?
Therein lies the rub.