Choosing to be hopeful at Thanksgiving

It's not hard to think of these times as feeling different, on the edge of something unfamiliar. Discomforting. Scary. Yet there are embers of HOPE. It's like a drive in the country when you encounter a breathtaking view of golden mountains and pistachio-green fields. Then all of a sudden the car roller coasters over a hill and your stomach bulges into your throat. Unconsciously making you aware that to see a thing of beauty often requires a bumpy ride.

People are using words like transformative. Transition. New normal. I'm using them, too. Born in the peak year of the baby boom, I'm headed for a mid-50 threshold. If all holds together, midway plus through my life on this earth. Moving to a new city at this point, leaving behind a life in another place built over two decades. Children grown. One in college, one on her own. Still connected, yet building a new life for themselves. In these times. Showing similarities to me, but revealing personalities and perspectives that are different. New. Fresh.

Funny, many new friends I've made in this new life, new place, by chance and choice, are in their 20's like my daughters. Maybe a way to hold on to that last chapter of raising children, to maintain a sort of bridge to them. Or a way to imagine where the world is going in these times. I've always been an observer, trying to figure things out by watching what people say, think, believe. And what they do. Talking to most everyone I meet. Gleaning. Growing. Or maybe it's a way to make me feel young again, or at least younger. To be around their evolving ideas, greater energy, naive passion. Likely all of those things.

It's that frame of mind that's influencing my thoughts now as I read books, articles, essays. I'm hungry for information, insight. Both sides. All sides. Much written word. Articles, essays, books. Much spoken word from news reports, radio shows, music, even the sounds of the street, the woods, the water. Passing conversations. Images troubling, inspiring, broken, beautiful. 

I remain hopeful through it all and will get to that. But first, there are things that frustrate and anger me right now.

The feckless behavior of Congress. The disconcerting leadership of our President. The refusal of too many Americans to face reality. Our elected leaders making excuses, pointing fingers, avoiding the hard work of governing. Ignoring the necessity, the practicality of collaboration and compromise. The shallow, narrow dependency on purity tests from the right and the left. The harmful habit of declaring we must prepare for the future, but refusing to change anything now.

The overemphasis on standardized testing and score-keeping in public education. Taking us inevitably to a dead end that will require turnabouts and detours by teachers and parents to empower and authentically educate their students, their children. And eventually universities, employers when they finally realize that standards and testing alone do not an educated, agile mind make.

The fact that our consuming lifestyle is not sustainable.

The incestuous relationship between money, power and influence in our politics and public policy making. Big banks clearly "too big to fail." The smartest less attracted to sectors that grow the economic pie, but to sectors where they divide the pie. The disturbing fact that those at the tip-top of the income scale see no ceiling to their prosperity, while everyone else sees no floor.

Sending young, brave men and women into a "war against terrorism" of indistinct boundaries and elusive enemies. Raising concerns about drone warfare, questions about the purpose of of the American military and the role of our diplomacy in a world of rapidly evolving players, movements, conflicts, events.

America's Real First Thanksgiving

Still. I see a bright, sharp light at the threshold. Where a critical mass of us, increasingly populated and led by the young, will haltingly open the door. Then wrestle with the troubling facts, the problems, the realities, and push those who represent us in the White House, Congress, statehouses, city and county councils, school boards to be honest, courageous, principled and SERVE THE COMMON GOOD. Most importantly, we will ask MORE of each other. Ask MORE of ourselves. We are a stubborn, but wily people. Fiercely independent, yet abundantly compassionate, instinctively communal. I don't know what the solutions will be, what will stay the same, what will change, how hard it will be or how long it will take, but I do believe the American experiment of bringing diverse people together to make one nation along a dynamic timeline is too compelling, too important to fade into grays and shadows. We are always evolving, always finding ways to succeed, to prosper.

In that light, as our very-American Thanksgiving approaches, when we are universally thankful for family, friends, home and community, I choose to be HOPEFUL.