There exist many, many adages, maxims, warnings, words of wisdom deriving from life experiences. Too often these terse phrases arise from bitter experience and then one is betwixt and between. Do we pay attention to these statements, or do we allow life to unfold before us and decide for ourselves what is of value and what is so very cute, but also so very outdated or useless. Does life actually have any connection to these phrases, or should we discard them all, allow our own significantly different life experiences to inspire new, fresh off the press, pithy byte size words of wisdom?
You might think this is truly a useless discussion during these days so fraught with existential danger, plagued by ugly winds of hate, inundated with the reek and coppery taste of spilled blood, so much of it. Who cares or does it even matter if one denies their relevancy or adopts them, holding them close to heart and tongue. I think it matters a great deal.
While not an absolute, it does reveal much of a person's philosophy of life and the approach to it. Are the words of the past to be simply discarded, lumped together with tales of magic and fantasy? Is there indeed nothing there, even as we forcefully, with critical, discerning eyes sift through the chaff and set aside, to use again, the words of experience indeed carrying within wise words, bared as we toss aside the seemingly useless.
I think we are too quick to use both extremes. We blithely tell ourselves it is a different world and old wisdom is outdated wisdom. Thus, we end up discarding, with contempt, possibly also with a thrill of second thought, the treasured with the garbage. On the other hand, it is claimed that the old way, all the old ways, all the supposed right ways of thinking and doing are IT! No other way allowed and to say otherwise is to reject all that is right. Period.
We have all wandered as a nation divided into two parts along with tiny sects within. No one agrees with anyone other than the man or woman in the mirror. Worst, we refuse, categorically, to listen, hear and evaluate. We refuse to accept even the possibility that we might be a tad off from perfect, and adjustments are not a bad thing at all.
Compromise is not a four-letter word. The issue is clear to an observer with clear vision. Patriotism is a lost art, a defamed, abused and misinterpreted value. It does not mean utter and complete loyalty to a fault, no criticism of the government and its policies allowed. Nor does it mean that we toss the idea and maintain loyalty, a patriotism perverted, and give it only to one's beliefs, to the exclusion of all else. No room for change, merely to give one's all, unthinking, undemanding self-effacement as an individual, and subsuming it within the cesspool of a generally demented narcissistic self-declared leader, reveling in the filth of his soul and adding in your defeated soul along the way. Handing it over lock, stock and chain, to a demented, narcissistic leader. A minor tyrant in his 15 minutes of fame, though powerfully destructive in that time in the limelight.
It is typical for every next generation to add up the deficiencies of the prior generation and swear to do better, know, they can do better, for who could do worse. Forgotten are the good times, the wisdom, the love, the understanding, the rescues, the basic ideas of getting along with others, of loyalty to a country which has been overwhelmingly good for all, even and perhaps mainly, to those finding themselves at the bottom of a tall, forbidding looking ladder.
That was America. That is America. That is the country to whom the rest of the world turns to for advice, for leadership, for unity in common causes, to defend democracy, to heal the wounds of the world. Along with the wounds of itself. Does this country have faults and deficiencies? Of course, but it also stands above most in addressing its imperfections, even as we are falling into a slow mode at present.
Still tall and proud though self-challenging, we continue to provide the protective umbrella over most of the world. We simply have forgotten, on purpose or by accident, that in so doing, we must not forget to protect ourselves, particularly from enemies within, those who seek our downfall and demise. Those who invent attractive conspiracy theories and explanations bought into by confused worried people.
Somehow, we must convince our allies, now confused by threats from seekers of office, unqualified, immoral and amoral, demented and lacking in mental strength and health, who is allergic to truth, honor and honesty, a dictator at heart, and a clear and present danger to this nation. We must combat all those who wish to rip our country asunder. Those who wish us only harm and needful of training and reacquaintance with the truth.
Those allies who are weak at the knees, along with our own politicians who lack backbone, and cave to threats from our enemies to the slightest hint of trouble, need shoring up, with new strong planks of truth which use and internalize the wisdom of the past, the lessons of history, the wisdom of change, appropriate and timely. Suffused with the hope and optimism for the future, with the values of America intact and honored.
We have fallen short in meeting our duties to provide for a generation properly educated, healthy and clear of mind, able to discern truth from falsehood. We have not done so. We have failed and the proof is right out there in the screaming for blood mobs. It cannot continue. It must not continue. It must be challenged and repaired and soon, very soon.
I love America or at least I used to. Now that love and trust is challenged by the growth of rapid, vile, and violent antisemitism. I feel challenged in my inalienable rights as a citizen even as genetic trauma runs deep within my veins, penetrating the heart. Where is my America? Where?
Out there, screaming for my blood.
Not acceptable.
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Yitzy, sweet boy, golden boy, in a way, it is good that you are literally and figuratively away from and above this earth, away from the uncertainty, the grief, the seemingly insurmountable problems afflicting us all. Still, we all miss you, so long for you, the gap in our hearts appearing when we are most unprepared for it. Be safe up there and remember your people, your family. We certainly always and forever remember you.
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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