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  • From: SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Our new president, whoever he may be
  • Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:28:04 -0500

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




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