Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio?

OUR NATION TURNS ITS LONELY EYES TO YOU. If only it was that easy.  A simpler time.  Maybe not at the time the phrase was penned by Paul Simon, but certainly in retrospect. 

Regardless of your personal ideology, belief system, political / religious affiliations or out-of-body experiences, it seems we all can agree the past few years have been absolutely and completely exhausting.  Not to mention polarizing, frustrating, anger producing and just sad. We’ve thrown each other under the bus, demonized those with whom we disagree and shouted from the rooftops what we believe to be true.  Fortunately, we have social media and cable TV as a place for us all to come together and heal (if you don’t know me well enough, please know my tongue is firmly in my cheek).  Talk about pouring gas on the fire…sigh…

So where do we go from here?  My approach to life has always been that the glass is consistently more than half full and that so very many of us walk around with two loaves of bread under each arm.  This view as an eternal optimist allows for days where you can always see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that the odds are very high for the sun to rise in the morning. Simple as that may be, it’s better than constantly over complicating our lives and thereby allowing for the darkness that exists to be how we define and view our world. What value is there in that?   But I’m also a realist.  Evil exists in the world as does poverty, despair, illness, violence and all other manners of challenges that overwhelms the lives of friends, loved ones and millions of others whom we don’t even know.  Which is why we need to be part of the solution, not the problem.  And why those of us who acknowledge our good fortune have a responsibility to take action on behalf of others and do what we can to lighten the load for anyone who is suffering.  And from my own experience, that’s what I’ve seen from the vast number of people we’re lucky enough to share the planet with.  It’s why the firefighter runs into the burning building, or the schoolteacher shields her students from harm or the medical professionals care for those with contagious diseases or bring care to communities who rarely receive care.  I can’t imagine they’re thinking about their paychecks when life begs them to make a difference.

So, as we emerge from the past couple of years, my hope is we will all take a breath and remember how much we all care about one another.  Life is way too short to hold grudges or to spend our time demonizing one another.  We don’t have to agree with each other all of the time.  We live in a free and plural society where many different ideas and thoughts are welcome.  We just need to respect the right of others who think differently than we do.  This country was founded on the ability to freely express our thoughts and to be able to embrace our beliefs.  Let’s try doing it without shouting at one another or forgetting that there is much more that unites us than divides us.

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