Humility and Resolve: The Republic takes a Licking

The problem with being a remarkably gifted (yet modest) sarcastic and snarky writer is that sometimes life is so ironic and stupid that it defies hilarious absurdist (and yet, still wicked free) commentary.  The past two weeks have left me uncharacteristically speechless.  I’ve observed people of every ilk expressing and experiencing joy and heartache and hope and despair and celebration and the starkest kind of loss.  We (that’s the American “We”) have felt all of these feelings through shared experiences, but our respective reactions, in so many ways, could not be more different.  In a country that has the word “United” in its name, how can it be acceptable, and for some even seemingly preferable, that we are so divided in our perceptions of these common experiences?  

 

Anyway, here are some thoughts that I’m thinking:

·         I think it’s possible for peaceful centeredness and delusion to coexist in a person.

·         Some people think that compromise and concession are one and the same.  This is an arrogant position in my opinion.

·         Sometimes you need to find the positive in a bad situation.  For example, experts are predicting that the flooding of New York City’s subways and sewers caused by Hurricane Sandy will have a Darwinian impact, and will result in the evolution of an expert swimmer and genetically powerful “super rat”.  Go Rats!

·         How is it possible that people who live within a five mile radius of the most civilized and populated city on earth are huddled around outdoor fires for warmth and have no fresh water to drink? 

·         How is it possible that the US voting process is more primitive today than it’s been in anyone’s memory?  Try to think of another process that is more clunky today than it was when you were a kid.

 

These lessons were reinforced for me in the past two weeks:

1.)  We each need to be more humble about our relative worth and influence in the world.  We are each absolutely as important, and no more so, as our neighbor.

2.)  Be self-reliant first, and then help your neighbor and look to your community for support.

 

“We are a Republic. Real Liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy.”
— Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) Lawyer, Secretary of the Treasury  & Secretary of State