“People… Make… American… Jobs…”

Last night’s State of the Union from the President – in Wordle:

Just reading across from left to right, hitting the bigger words: “people… make… American… jobs”. I like that it’s in our hands to work together on the mess we’re in as a nation. Well played, Mr. President. Well played.

Contrast that with the Republican response from Paul Ryan (R-Wis.):

That’s a different vibe with, “President… now… debt… government… spending…” – and I confess, one side pointing fingers at the other, while the other offers to work together within the whole, just makes it feel more right to be working from the “other” side towards some mutual hope.

we’re all in this together

I appreciate these mornings. Everyone else is still in bed. I have some time to self downstairs. The coffee smells great. The thoughts and ideas are unimpeded. I’m listening to NPR Weekend Edition, sipping a cup of Tully’s Kona Roast, typing on a laptop, surfing through yesterday’s football scores… life is good.

By the way, Georgia is the only loss so far for the SEC on opening weekend. Way to go, Dawgs.

The lead story has been that the President is planning to “speak to school children” this week, raising the threat level in those who are fearful and untrusting of anyone/anything different. A few weeks ago, I saw a twitter or blogpost from someone that it looked like we were entering a Big Brother kind of society, where government watches and decides and tells us what to think. The “socialist” health care proposals are bringing out the loud squeaky wheels to town halls to shout down the evil.

It looks to me like we’ve lost our sense of being in this thing together. The economy is bad, life is stressed, jobs are hard to find and hard to keep, and we want to know if it’s going to be okay or not. I honestly don’t know if it will, especially if the US vs THEM, or US v ALL OF THEM EVILDOERS, doesn’t give way at some point to real compassion, real discussion, real conversation and dinner and coffee together to just feel better about the people around us.

Liane asked the randomly chosen contestant on the Puzzle, “how are you doing in Fort Bragg?” – “We’re all getting by.”

That’s the truth, about all we can count on at any given point in our lives. “We’re all getting by” means nothing more and nothing less than we are doing the bet we can, that we are all in the middle of it, and that it’s passing into the past somehow, “getting by” as we get along. I just wonder if we as a nation are missing out on the best parts by focusing on the scary parts, by demonizing the disjointed parts, by closing in and away from the together parts of “we’re all getting by”…