It's a Half Year Later and on the Verge of a Brand New Year Thing

Dear America,

So it's been awhile, hasn't it. 

No question about that.

Last blog was published August 12, 2020; and isn't it just too bad so sad that not much has happened since then.

yeah...exactly.  

Hardly.

Half a year later and America has witnessed some of the most tumultuous months in modern history.

Between the pandemic and the presidential election -- consequences of which America has been profoundly changed -- this is a time of reckoning, rebound and/or total bust, depending upon one's point of view.  The politics of everything has infringed upon our natural cultural graces, having now escalated to an elevation that, for the most part, common man can no longer see common ground.  Our e pluribus unum is becoming less and less about our oneness and more and more about our separateness with the arrival of each new day, a travesty of the unimaginable kind.

So much so, we have even modernized the terms to more easily describe what's going on -- from  snowflakes (via Google: "a 2010s derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or are overly-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.") to cancel culture -- (from wiki: "a pejorative expression describing the use of boycotts and public shaming to hold people accountable for offensive words or actions, including attempts to have them removed from their jobs or from public platforms like social media.")  

Everything has a hashtag, too! From  #metoo to #justice to #blacklivesmatter to #justiceinpolicing to # #caresact, every movement and every meme has had its day of rising to the surface, bubbling over with instagram postings, tiktok twerking, and sparking social media offensives worthy of outsmarting any defense.  One person can take another person out in a nanosecond; nothing is safe from being branded -- from insensitive cultural appropriation to just plain stupid.  And sometimes, its just one person's word against another.   The truth?  God only knows.  

As if  #politicalcorrectness is ever #correct.

Poor poor Theodor Geisel, am I right?

The old G Thing here just so happens to have a book autographed by the late, great, Dr. Seuss -- it's called, Happy Birthday to You!

And having said that, I'm reminded of the reason why I'm jumping back into this Thing called G in the first place.  I have a birthday coming up.  And it's a big one.

A big one not in the usual sense...it's not a nice round number, capping off a decade.  Nope.

It's the final year before capping off such decade, and it seems to be allowing me a certain vantage point that has prompted me into making it a big deal with each new day that comes my way.   And given we are talking about sixty years in the making, I have written a list of sixty things I wish to accomplish over the next year -- covering everything from the mundane to the sublime, I've included things like professionally steam cleaning my floors and carpets to eating more scallops,

It's simply a list to remind me of the things I love and/or love to do, and remind me to do more of it.  In other words, this present decade and all that it encompasses is not going down without a fight, nor is the next one not ringing it without fireworks and mouthwatering Buona Forchetta pizza!

I will talk to trees more, but more important, listen to what they have to say right back. 

I will eat more scallops, but more important, give thanks for the little devils simply being on my plate.

I will write again, recognizing how much I have missed it.

I will make more Sunday dinners.

I will set course for the making of fifty-nine and something turn into fifty-nine and something something beautiful in every stretch of the imagination.  It's just a number anyways.

In some ways, I feel like I have only just begun.

IF this next year is anything like this past year....oh Lordy, are we in for a treat.

Perhaps, I'm still taking into account the effects of marie kondo...granted, she was without a doubt, the biggest influencer of my 2017.  What a year, what a year it was.  Nothing wrong with a whole lot of tidy. 

Of course, not to be outdone -- 2014 and 2018 were equally remarkable, forever etched in my mind bookending my girl's four years of college.  And now, as if wonders never cease, that girl is fully established in both career and in love.

Of course, it wasn't all gravy, baby, but now I find myself just rambling.  And there is no point to rambling with a point, right Joe (that being directed to Joe, the newly elected president of these fine United States of America).  Save more on him for another day for sure.

Besides, this is all about setting the compass for home.  This place, this blog, is my home away from home. And what I wish for most is for more days like this...tapping my fingers to the keyboard, contemplating this thing called life, and documenting this very day...day after day. 

For nothing, nothing, ever stays the same.  And thank God, right?

The thing is, if the climate can so easily change, then there is hope for us yet.

I look forward to reveling in the changes this new year brings me  -- with you or without you -- it doesn't really matter. teehee 

Today is simply about being a half year later and on the verge of a brand new year and THAT is something to celebrate.  (yup, it's the small things)

Until next time,

Make it a Good Day,

G

 

It's About the Real Fire and Fury in our Belly Thing

Dear America,

It's the State of the Union... 

According to G

AMERICA IS ON FIRE!

and this works no matter which direction you are coming from, whether left or right, America is truly on fire.

RIGHT: Business is booming, optimism is blazing, and America is neither self-contained or about to burn out.  We are so running hot, we can almost hear the sizzle...

LEFT:  It's all Fire and Fury --  Trump is raging out of control, and about to get us nuked by the rocket man of North Korea; and whether it be the snowflakes on college campus' living afraid of their own shadow, of any opinion that differs from their leftist indoctrination from the leftist professors who teach them, or whether it be the socialist dreams decades in the making and running off of the likes of politicians like Bernie or the lies of HERlary -- it all thrives under the cover of a mainstream liberal media, Hollywood heavyweights moonlighting with their intellectual, leftist, elitist, smack, and a simple, blatant, all-round, disregard of having any intention to co-exist with people outside their worldview...all in all, the commonality of the spark, the fire under their fury, is ignited by the justly seated president of the United States, President Trump, along with just about anyone who voted for him, or continues to support.

Two things are for certain this morning:  America is divided nearly right in half, and duly evident is that that last paragraph was some kind of run-on sentence.... what a scorcher.  my bad.

If you will, please read this quality piece from Hillsdale's Imprimis: Are We Free to Discuss America's Real Problems?  And many thanks for your bravery, Professor Amy L. Wax.

The truth sometimes stings, but for goodness sake, isn't it better to talk about it?  Doesn't Alcoholics Anonymous begin with the addict, that the addict must recognize that the problem exists before they can even take their first step of the mighty twelve?

It takes bravery to admit we have a problem; it takes bravery to question the system and break free from the safety of the politically correct/charged agenda; it takes bravery to sail into the unknown; it takes bravery to dump the tea and question a king and start a war that would prove revolutionary.  It all counts as part of doing the steps necessary to be responsible to the whole, generation after generation. 

Characteristically, this would systematically look much like this: 

"Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. Go the extra mile for your employer or client. Be a patriot, ready to serve the country. Be neighborly, civic-minded, and charitable. Avoid coarse language in public. Be respectful of authority. Eschew substance abuse and crime." 

Oh Hail to the free speech!  Hail to the free speech! for Amy is on fire; ripping through the valleys and across the plains, with a pointed and rather potent truth, wreaking havoc on the sanity of the Left...will they even survive?  teehee

I have a new little book of quotes, The Founding Fathers, Quotes, Quips and Speeches, captured by the editor, Gordon Leidner....and when I opened it up this morning, this is what was top of the page:

Suppose the colonies 

do abound in men, 

what does that signify?  

They are raw, undisciplined, cowardly men."  

-- Lord Sandwich, Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty

isn't that a hoot!  America's rag-tag band of brothers and patriots of long ago were so dismissed -- we showed them, didn't we?  And when I say we, I really mean not me....how grateful I am, how grateful I am.... 

....never underestimate the power of Divine Providence, and never forsake the foundations of sound self-government, self-reliance, and sheer grit, all of which brought us through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the World Wars....the war against terror.....and even this cultural war between left and right.  Funny how the right side always seems to win.....hmmmmmmm

The thing is, this generation's luxury of misunderstanding -- or is it more being misinformed -- of the truths of America's founding, and of our individual duty to uphold the rule of law, in order to keep the republic healthy and happy for not only the present day, but way into this nation's future, will be the death of us; if we are not wide awake -- to smell the smoke -- and band together in unison against this growing fiery fury and enemy of the state, we will lose it all.  Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, that which came upon the fire and fury of our early founders and patriots will be lost forever.

My hope is that the democrats will make fools out of themselves tomorrow -- whether wearing all black as if going to a funeral, or what have you; already a supreme court justice -- a lady who is under oath  and supposedly steady under the rule of law, to be non-political and non-biased -- is saying she will NOT attend.  Um, Ruthy, you need to recuse yourself from all decisions pretty much from here on out, k?  Hello?  What a coward; how unprofessional; how loony is this decision?  A supreme court justice unable to even sit like a lady and listen to THE PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES?  Seriously? [ Gonna have to tape Maxine's response, too...just for kicks and giggles.]

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

And it's weird... as The Right managed to do sit tight, out of respect for the office (aside from that Joe Wilson moment...oops) all the while Obama was president for each of his 'eight States'... has the snowflake virus hit every leftist from sea to shining sea, even those who are presumed to have had a decent education?

[hope you clicked on Joe, cuz there are some astounding things coming out of Obama's mouth during that moment when Joe screamed, you lie!  Astounding moments -- from illegal immigration to abortion...liar liar oval office pants on fire]

My hope, too, is that Trump stays on point, sticks to his speech, and stays measured, as he goes about the business of unifying the country, not dividing us.  WE ARE, in fact and according to every truth, all about the  e pluribus unum here, in America....The Left has no business telling you otherwise, let alone tearing it all asunder.

Truth is -- having a fire in our belly is good for every one, every business, upon every corner, of every neighborhood, for every child, in every home, when it is part of every effort in the protection and security and welfare of the common good; having a certain fire and fury aimed to divide us, destroy us, and leave us for dead, that is not so good.

SO to close, let me call upon a few words from Thomas Jefferson --

"We are all Republicans, 

we are all Federalists. 

 If there be any among us who would wish

 to dissolve this Union

 or to change its republican form, 

let them stand undisturbed as monuments

 to the safety with which error of opinion

 may be tolerated 

where reason 

is left free to combat it."

beautiful

just beautiful

can we talk about it?

penny for your thoughts?

After all, "the ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union." (again, Thomas Jefferson)  And by definition, this term, in the macro, characterizes a colorful, multifaceted, whole; there may be times when we do not all agree, times it may look a lot like a conflict of opinion.  Are we seriously raising a society unable to deal with this?  

wow.  we do have problems.

Until tomorrow, hail to the chief facing this divided country.  

May God be with you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

"It does not take a majority to prevail ...

but rather an irate, tireless minority,

keen on setting brushfires of freedom

in the minds of men."

Samuel Adams

just a wee bit of friendly fire

as featured in the Patriot Post earlier this week...

which, if you don't get, demand it...

fueling the minds of conservatives,
and independents alike, with abandon --
daily, freely, nurturing the little seedlings of tomorrow...

Let us couple the sentiment with a word or few from Glenn, from his Tuesday's show, when he looked straight into the camera all McBeckie-eyed and said,

"Don't think you know it yet...but you won...

There's not enough dirt to put out this fire."

Amen, brother Glenn, amen.

Can we get a alleluia?

Perhaps, we are living like Thelma and Louise, as in when Thelma has this epiphany while raging through a deserted and desolate dirt road, looking like somewhere in nowhere-land, Arizona, when she turns to her partner in crime and passion saying, "I feel so awake! It's like... never been this awake...you know what I mean?"

Of course, not to throw a bucket of water on her moment, this revelation came ringing in just before she had never been more dead.  (fear not, it's only a movie)

As a proud carrying member of the first fire sign of the zodiac, Aries, I know all about spontaneous combustion, jumping into uncharted territory with reckless abandon, making decisions on the fly -- based purely on how it makes me feel, of course, and living life from peak to peak, hardly having time to mess around in the valleys; these days, however, that little bit of fire that used to fuel my every move, and strangely enough, even be at times refreshing and rehabilitating -- a fire that would light my way, warm my spirit, and give creative license to my day to day without so much as a singed hair on my head, has jumped the road, leaving me in the dust of destruction.

Oh woe is me, G...what are you gonna do, cry?

All I'm saying is my life, and the fire that lives and breathes in me, has changed course so much so in the last 40 days, 40 nights -- scratch that, make that 40 weeks or so --  that I do not even recognize myself (Lord knows what my neighbor thinks...walking the dog in my jammies and all).

What happens to us when we no longer know who we are?

THIS; with the much larger than my life devastation upon Dear America, totally implied and intended.

This is what happens to us; we falter, we look like we might be crumbling under the pressure, we slip, we splinter from the tree, we say the wrong things, we do stupid things, and things just don't seem to flow like they used to, do they? 

Or, we might hide, hibernate, look for cover -- trying to get ourselves out of more harm's way so that we can just get by as best as we might possibly can without hurting someone, or everyone.

Or, we might light the fuse -- reposition the kindling, give time and space for the air to bring forth the much needed life force, tweak it, play with it, give whatever energy we have left TO it --  in order to rebuild -perhaps even stronger than from which we started.

Which one of these ideas do you think G wishes to dwell on, sit a spell on, relax and rejuvenate in the light of day and night on?

We must recognize the strengths of who we are first; we must be able to capture the spirit of what is inside us, purely and honorably bearing witness to both the good and the bad, so that we are better able to pull together every resource, come together to unite within the content of good character and a common goal, in order to better equip ourselves to wage forth in battle against the hazards that lie ahead and to those even left behind.  How do we do that?

The thing is, it will take a concerted effort; it calls for us to unite in the spirit of America, over and above the politics and ideology of attack.  It calls for us to join into the sentiment of "e pluribus unum" -- out of many, one; we must join hand in hand, with bucket brigade and all, wholly representative of the fighting spirit this country was made -- or we will be devoured by our very own bitterness, divisiveness, recklessness and abandon.

No matter how bad it gets, we cannot fail to keep showing up -- and not only show up, but to be on the same stage.

Let us ponder for a moment, upon the heart wrenching awakening featured in a recent George Will column, "TRAGIC NUMBER: 70% OF BLACK BIRTHS OUT OF WEDLOCK. 

SEVENTY PERCENT!

I believe that if Dr. Martin Luther King were alive today, and preaching upon those very same steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he would turn to us and say,

"I have a dream...that my people and all people, live together in harmony and in peace...and give rise to the fire inside each and every one of us, to do the right thing, to be a good person, to stand for something worth standing for, and most of all, to live in harmony, in family, within the community we call America...And let us never forget, everything we do, everything we say, begins at home.  Stay home with your wives and husbands and children...stay home and live by example to the little eyes who dream of one day being just like you...stay home and teach the fundamental lessons all children need to know -- to be good to each other, to love one another, and treat your family with the highest honor, the utmost respect, and in exact proportion and to the same level that you would expect -- it's called the golden rule.  Stay home, and be a father, be a mother -- be a parent who guides, loves, fosters everything wonderful for your own children to embody and fully recognize in themselves, and hopefully one day on their own.  Stay home, my people, all people.  Stay home and cultivate your own family to grow big and strong and magnificent in the eyes of God and for all the world to see.  Stay home.

Frightful statistics rage within Will's words and review of the last several decades.  He references a study by Paul E. Barton and Richard J. Coley, "The Black-White Achievement Gap: When Progress Stopped", noting that "progress generally halted for those born around the mid-1960's, a time when landmark legislative victories heralded an end to racial discrimination."  Adding the observation, "it is very hard to imagine progress resuming in reducing the education attainment and achievement gap without turning these family trends around...it is similarly difficult to envision direct policy levers [to effect that]."

Public policy for a private pulpit only feeds a fire of deprivation and entitlement, starving out the fundamental fuel and renewable energy that builds lasting peace, leaving a legacy of self respect and honor, legitimacy and good character to the next generation.

I firmly believe that if we were fortunate enough to have Dr. King with us today, he would have his way with  us, maybe even hit us up-side the head and tell us to straighten up and fly right  -- but more important, he would not even recognize us, saddened by who we have become; matter of fact, he would probably cry. 

For THIS is not living his dream; THIS is not America's dream; nor is it the founders definition of "one"  -- one family, one community, one spirit, one birth.

So will this fire deep inside us grow into a blaze capable of destroying all things which no longer serve us and make way for the seedlings of America's rebirth, returning us to the days of "e pluribus unum"?  Or will we all pull a Thelma and Louise together?

You know, if they had just stayed home...

Make it a Good Day, G

Preaching the good news: we are sixty days away from fundamentally transforming America back!

AND A MUST SEE TV is as usual, on Dear America.  Watch it.  Listen to every word.  It is from our president before he was president...listen to his still, one voice raging a spirit in America like none before (except if you count a few of the founder's men...but I digress)...listen to him... and I ask you, is THIS the reflection of the President we see before us today?  It's a good question.  One worth fueling debate and conversation for decades, I'm certain.  But make no mistake, and let me be clear,  his vision -- for it was a good one indeed -- begins at home, no matter how rich or how poor.