Searching for ordinary ideals of Americana is like looking for consistency in the Affordable Care Act statute. They simply don’t exist. The valued conviction of one American vastly differs from that of another.
One may celebrate adventures in mysticisms. Another may find inspiration sitting in a NASCAR grandstand. While a third struggles to free himself of the orthodox hobgoblins that suffocate his soul.
In the more respectable newspapers, the story of the national struggle is told with delicate regularity. The news is professed from the locus of the two party political system…any diverging views are carefully sifted out. What’s reported is only what the story editors allow to pass through their particulate filters.
We’re told a never ending Marxian tale of the evil rich exploiting the noble poor. Even worse, we’re led to believe that clowns like John F. Kerry know exactly what the heck they’re doing. Plus we’re led to believe that what they are doing is in our best interest.
Occasionally the madness is too immense for even the major networks, and their carefully scripted plots, to ignore. Nonetheless, we find the ongoing claptrap to be miserably altered from the America we see and experience when we step out our front door each morning. Moreover, we find the abundance of thought polluting newspeak and commonsense destroying political correctness to be insulting and intolerable.
Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
We’re confident that, despite being told what to think, people are capable of figuring things out on their own. They don’t need a government website to tell them to bite an aspirin and call 911 if they have pain in their chest. In fact, from our observations, people can accomplish remarkable things when they need to.
One fellow may build a better mousetrap after failing for years. Another may finally get the guts to open his own barbershop. A former high school slacker may grow up to win father of the year. You can never underestimate someone with a burning desire to succeed.
When it comes down to it, the American experience is for each individual to make of it what they will. Along the way, and despite their best efforts, no one escapes from getting kicked in the face every now and then. But even in the worst of times, there’s always something to be grateful for.
Perhaps that’s what makes Thanksgiving Day unique in American culture. It doesn’t matter if you bow down before the God of the bible or the god of Mammon. More than any other holiday, people celebrate Thanksgiving with a shared conviction.
The point is, even the most ungrateful person can pause one day a year to give thanks…even if they believe they deserve more. For others, however, it’s a daily life or death proposition…
As Good As It Gets
Charle Street, in Costa Mesa, California, is a home for desperate men…where lifesaving ego deflation is administered, hope is born, and miracles come to pass every day. If you happen to find yourself there you are in dire need of what Carl Jung first called “a spiritual experience.”
Stenciled on the meeting room wall is one of life’s essential axioms…
“Grateful people are happy people and those that aren’t, aren’t.”
The meaning of this is quite simple to understand. Yet its outcome, for those willing to practice it, is quite significant. For with just a little daily gratitude even the most down and out discover there’s always something to be happy about. And even in the worst of times, there are always things to be grateful for, if just a moment is taken to consider them.
Thanksgiving Day is a time to say thanks, gather with family, and have a satisfying feast. We hope you were able to make the most of it. This just might be as good as it gets.
Sincerely,
MN Gordon
for Economic Prism
