Values: you have to be carefully taught

Why are we Americans so uncivil these days? What has happened to our values? When my candidate for presidents lost the election I was disappointed but I was brought up to believe that this person who would be our next president, even though not my choice, was chosen. Believing in the American democratic process, I made peace with this choice, recognizing that we are a disparate nation and we must move on. I revere the position of President of the United States, elected (most of the time!) by the people.

I am worried about this ugliness we see now in our nation, this strange meanness in our society. Where are the values of family and Christianity now? What are we thinking?

When I was a young child I would return from school and find my father in his disorganized study where he was writing a book. I'd jump into his lap, displacing the cat on his chest and he'd draw me a picture, read our book and we'd talk about the day. Later, as I grew up, his lap could not accommodate me, but we still talked.

My father was a devoted Christian and he made sure all his five kids were received in the church. We sang in the choir, were acolytes on Sunday, and we read the Bible. When I asked him, as a teenager, was Christ a communist, he took my question seriously and we had a long dialog going for many years. He was respectful of my questions, very strong in his intellectual way. He knew that he had given me the tools to think. He was a model for me of generosity and the necessity to examine all sides of a question. When I decided that Christianity was not for me, he accepted this.

I believe in democracy. The Constitution is so amazing it makes me cry with humility. I love the independent American spirit, and I believe we are like no other people on earth.

But, still, I am worried right now. I think we now have a president who truly wants to do the Right Thing. He wants to have universal health care so that all of us will be taken care of. Who could dispute this? And yet, we have the Republicans who monolithcally always vote NO, and have no better plan.

I think that we as a nation are very much on the wrong track. We need to get together to make this country work! Stop thinking of lining pockets of politicians (of both stripes), stop thinking of getting elected next time, just do the right thing for the people. Consider the issues. Think about the best values for all of us. Care for each other and stop the vituperation.

The Right Thing to Do

I am hopeful today after the passage of the health care reform yesterday. It is far from what I would like, but it is a start, as was Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. It will evolve into what most Americans want and rely on. This is the right thing to do, as our President has often said.

What concerns me as I think about this fiercely independent spirit of the American people, is the nastiness and meanness and lack of generosity I perceive right now. When is the line crossed?

I am a direct descendant of John Adams who was vilified in his time. Seems he had some cause to be hated, but, he too, wanted to do the right thing. So this is nothing new, this vitriol. We have grown to be a huge and populous country with many agendas striving to be paramount. We must not forget our responsibilities to see beyond the personal needs and desires we all have. We need to look to doing the right thing.

Abortion! o.k. So personally I may be against it. In countries where the people have universal health care, abortion rates are far below ours. This is because young folks have access to free birth control. I wonder why there is such an outcry about this (by old men in gray suits, otherwise known as politicians)? I conclude that this is really a non-issue concocted to get votes for politicians who really do not have a clue. There is another agenda, and it is probably race.

It seems to me that there have been very few politicians these days who vote with their conscience. Like the financial wizards motivated by their greed, politicians are for the most part just seeing to getting themselves elected next time don't ask me about doing the right thing.

Seems we just love the media circus, Glen Beck and all the rest (of both parties). We are the internet generation!

I love America! I love our spirit and I do not want to live in Europe or wherever. I love the raggedness of us, our sassiness, our questions and our inappropriateness. But I wonder about our generosity of spirit in these days? Florida is at the bottom of the heap of states in philanthropic giving and volunteerism. What's happened? Have we become misers, hunkered down with our own issues and suspicious of change? Would any one of us really cast a cold eye on a tiny illegal Mexican immigrant child who needs medical attention and not step up to the plate? Would any one of us kick that homeless old man under a bridge? Would we help?

We need politicians to say "YES" to a few things they believe in. We need them to be responsible to their view of what is the Right Thing to Do. Looking at last night's proceedings in the House, it seemed like such a zoo!

Just thinking..

Moving On and Happy to do It

This is our home now, the place we walk and discover and renew our commitment to the land and each other. We have owned this small patch of Central Florida in the Green Swamp for many years but until now it was not our primary residence.

We have sold our town house in St. Petersburg. The closing is next week. We are expecting to move to a place with our daughter and her son, maybe a duplex. But for now we are in limbo when we want to be in St. Pete where we have deep roots and love to see our friends.

I thought it would be sad to leave the town house after eight years, most of them before we retired. But as I look back, we were hardly ever there in daylight and at night we were busy still working on the ends of our day responsibilities.

As we approached the task of moving out of this place that for so long has seemed very impersonal compared to the ranch, we discovered so many 'nests' of stuff that had to be dismantled: Photos of the grandchildren, small drawings made by my favorite students, boxes of stuff left over from previous moves, and, of course, the junk drawers where everything was stowed. We took yet another vow to reduce the stuff.

We beat it into some kind of order for the packers and movers who will come next week and trucked a few boxes of stuff to the ranch. We incorporated the clothes and books we wanted to keep and took a whole bale to the Hospice thrift shop and the local library. I had a box of my treasures from many trips to South America so I changed the theme in the powder room from cows to the Amazon. Out with all those cows! They have gone to the attic because I cannot yet get rid of all the cow paraphernalia given to me by students. (I will sort out the attic boxes later- much later.)

So that left us with a table full of silver candy dishes and petit four plates and old jewelry from our mothers. Finally, I packed this up into boxes and it too will go into the attic.

For now, it seems that all our stuff has been culled. Today Andy went to a machine in the supermarket that counts coins, with ten years of loose change we had stashed in little containers everywhere. It amounted to $67.83! My studio is swept and the pencils are where they should be.

Tomorrow, I will throw the dimes found in the bottom of the dryer into some small container. I will throw that tack or that eraser or that set of instructions for some one of our possessions into the pristine junk drawer. Tomorrow, the new projects will spill over into disorganized joy.

I hate moving! It is a limited opportunity.

Ragtime

You will just have imagine it, no photo, a large barn on the premises of the Florida Pioneer Museum full of folks having paid to be at this first ever Ragtime Festival in this small Florida town. We arranged ourselves on those hard metal chairs, in front of the stage and the backdrop of farm implements and we surreptitiously eyed the strawberry shortcakes and the chocolate cakes on sale on tables back of us.

We had invited some friends from the city and they were late due to torrential rain in the afternoon, and another friend who found us in the parking lot. But finally, we all connected and settled down with our tickets for the raffle. I am cursed with having to count the house, not only for numbers, but also for the diversity of the crowd. Looking around it seemed to me that the great majority of the folks there in the audience were the white "Q-tips", white retirees from the trailer parks and snowbird homes who are interested in ragtime music. I saw no Hispanics and the only African American I saw was our young guest from Vista.

The program was just stellar! The star of the event was a ragtime pianist from New Orleans, backed up with a Florida jazz ensemble. There was a time for a local brass group from various high schools and we all loved that. (especially the little guy who played the tuba) We got lots of information about the birth of jazz from its beginnings in ragtime music. It was a most appreciative crowd! The next day there was a Ragtime parade to a park where ragtime music was played all day.

Why did this amazing event happen in our little town? Two years ago, two couples went to the midwest to attend an old time music event. They had such a wonderful time they began to think that our little town of Dade City Florida could host such an event. So, Virginia and Val began to plan how this could happen.

Virginia is an amazing person, so intelligent she leaves me in the dust! She is so shy and self effacing I could not believe she would put herself forward to head up this wonderful event. But, when she believes in something, she goes forth and does it. And, wow, was this event something fine! Neither she nor Val were ever in front of the mike. Virginia was not dressed up in costume, but I saw her going around to make sure everything was going according to schedule. As the music was happening I could see her feet tapping.

We loved the evening, the event, and our Florida friends who made this happen.

I love the surprises of living here.

The Princess in our Midst

Here is Princess Caroline with her wings and tiara and tutu and anything else she can think of. She has been visiting this week. This is my youngest grandchild of six, the only girl, and boy is she ever the girliest girl! We all sign on to this persona. But I wonder. What's a princess? Is it someone who is not capable and needs to be waited upon? Does a princess just sit and wave her sceptor and expect attention? Does a princess ever do anything? And do we even ask?

Thinking back of my own daughter, our baby woman, I remember how great it was to have a girl in the family after two brothers. I sewed great dresses for her and her dolls. But mostly she wore overalls and sturdy shoes (when she wasn't going barefoot). There was the time of the "rubber dress", a hand-me-down from an older friend. This thing was black and stiff, made entirely out of some ersatz polymer and had a lace collar and could stand on its own. She loved it and wore it every day for weeks. Like cement blocks, we never had to clean it. Then, that was over and she went back to more comfortable jeans.

Just thinking about this visit from the Princess, her older brother and her parents. We all fall into this play acting, and it is fun for sure. But this princess can catch frogs and crickets and look at a map and find Africa. And she can sure push her brother's buttons. What fun it has been for me, the grandma!

Another topic: we are moving! Our town house was put on the market last week and we have a buyer. So sudden, lots of cardboard boxes. I never thought this would happen so fast. Now we are looking for another place in St. Pete, a compound with our daughter and her son. The ideal thing is to buy a main house with a guest house on the property. Our daughter's house goes on the market next week. So we are all trying to get everything to work out for all our needs. (I thought I was through with all this!) But Grandma Molly is still here at the ranch, very happy with the scene of so much wild life and the gardens, and art in the studio, and the connection to this area.

I dream of being a princess, where all we will be done for me..