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[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:
> ....I didn't vote for him, but I'm willing to give him a chance.
>
>   
Yep, what she said. 

I also didn't vote for McCain, but if he'd won the election, I'd have 
said the same thing.  Because if we close our minds to the facts (as in 
" "X" is president and I don't like him") we'll just be 1) frustrated, 
and 2) unable to see/enjoy what progress is made, no matter our personal 
viewpoint/s and so on and on.  I can think of many reasons to drop it 
and go forward.

When I was about 20 or so years old, I remember reflecting on my (very 
rough, abusive in the extreme) childhood:  that it stunk, and that if I 
ever had kids I didn't want them to have to grow up the way I did, so I 
set about at that point in my life to make sure that would come to be.  
It was a good lesson for me, and ever since then, I try not to repeat 
over and over (in my mind or in my life) the things that didn't work for 
me and to always be looking and working toward the future.  Just as 
there's no reason to suck our thumbs about the past there's no reason to 
quit working toward change.

So this new president will bring some sort of change.  I'll wait to see 
what it is before I start wailing.  I'd do the same thing if it had been 
McCain prevailing.  If I predetermine that the new president, no matter 
who he (or she) be, will function poorly, I'll never be able to see the 
positives, and therefore I lose, even if everybody else 'wins'.

That's rather awkwardly stated, but I hope you get the drift.

Maybe I should also state that I am not afraid of the word I've seen 
thrown about (often erroneously, if you look up the meaning) on this 
list and many other places recently:  socialism.  Some years ago I read 
a book about personal contentment; many persons were interviewed and 
quoted therein concerning their level of personal contentment.  The two 
things that seemed to make the most difference in people's lives, as 
reflected in that book, at least (wish I could remember the title, but 
maybe I will at 3AM; I'm getting to that stage of my life) were a 
personal faith in some sort of spiritual system, and a feeling of being 
a part of a subgroup of their culture (family, local community, etc; it 
varied considerably from culture to culture). 

It was some time after I read the book that we a series of exchange 
students from a communist country in our home for a year each and they 
well all very much discontent with life here, and although none of them 
were rude or complaintive, could hardly wait to go home.  That got me to 
thinking: that many of the persons interviewed for the afore-mentioned 
book were or had been residents of either communist or socialist 
countries and never once had anyone mentioned their system of government 
as a source of personal angst.  Since then, just a year or so ago, I saw 
the results of a survey that purported to measure both personal 
happiness and personal contentment, by country of residence.  The 4 
countries having the highest marks were Norway, Sweden, Finland, and 
Denmark. 

So, I guess I'm not too scared to try much of anything.  In our current 
system, taxes are extracted from specific groups to be of benefit to 
other groups.  that has been called socialism by many....yawn...   As 
near as I can see, many systems stand a chance of working well so long 
as corruption is held at bay.  Seeing as how we humans don't seem to be 
able to do that, all systems stand a chance of not working 
well......maybe an equal chance? 

In the end, I think I am probably more responsible for my personal state 
of mind than is anyone/anything else. 

SusanJane, in Maine