Practicing Patience

A survey recently confirmed something that we who live in Washington DC area have known for years: Washington DC and its nearby communities have the worst traffic in the nation. 

Morning rush hour begins shortly before six in the morning and lasts until after ten. Afternoon rush begins at three in the afternoon and doesn't dissipate until after seven. In between, from eleven until one thirty, there is a mid day rush as wage slaves dash from their offices to various commercial establishments to do personal business or meet friends for lunch. Rain, snow, or a single accident can easily snarl things until mid night. 

Traffic is constant; delays never cease. 

Even where I live, twenty-five miles west of the city, delays are a fact of life.

A friend recently posted  "God bless all of you who have to drive Route 7 West every day during rush hour. I do not have the patience for this traffic."

Actually, there is no choice but to have patience.  

Where you're stuck in traffic, where you find yourself is pretty much where you are and where you're going to be until things move. If you're stuck, you will remain stuck. 

When "stuck" happens, you are forced to be patient. But just because you're stuck doesn't mean there are no options. You're not able to change the traffic, but you can change how you react to the traffic.

When you're stuck, you have an opportunity to practice patience. You can practice patience either by sitting stewing in your own juices or you can accept the delay with grace, understanding, an a bit of resignation. You can practice developing anger and resentment, or you can practice developing calm.

Choose the first option and you will probably arrive at your destination late. You will also arrive feeling harassed, bothered, and bedeviled, frayed, and frazzled.

Or choose the second option, relax and go with the flow. You will be developing the habit of patience. You will still probably arrive late, but your frame of mind will be calmer, more relaxed and pleasant, more ready for whatever else your day holds in store. 

I've done it both ways, and I know. 

The choice is yours.

The next time you find yourself stuck in traffic or elsewhere, how will you choose to practice patience?

Summer of New Horizons

 

Beyond the blue horizon

Waits a beautiful day.

Goodbye to things that bore me --

Joy is waiting for me.

I see a new horizon --

My life has only begun!

Beyond the blue horizon

Lies a rising sun.

-- "Beyond the Blue Horizon" (Robin, Harling and Whiting)

 

Shortly after starting this blog, I wrote about "Working on the Lay Away Plan" stating my intention to "work until they lay me away." Last year, I wrote that I was "Not Ready for the Rocking Chair." Both essays lead to the conclusion that there are too many interesting and wonderful things to see and do to sit passively on the sidelines and let life happen. 

 

My attitude has not changed. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I still want to explore new ideas and places and experience new things. Now, circumstances have changed to allow me to do just that.

 

Earlier this summer, I left my job and joined the army of retired Americans.

 

It's like right after I graduated from high school and saw nothing but opportunity ahead. Since I retired I have visited San Francisco and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge with my bionic bride. We rode the streetcar to Fisherman's Wharf. We feasted on at least five varieties of clam chowder -- each different, and all excellent. And we renewed friendships and swapped stories with my Vietnam flying buds from the Pink Panthers.

 

I have grown a respectable garden and feasted on home grown zucchini, green beans and tomatoes. as the song said, "I forget all about the sweatin' and diggin' each time I go out and pick me a big un." 

 

I have pitched in to a community garden growing food for the hungry. Who would have thought of gardening as a community social activity?

 

I bought a new grill and have been grilling a lot of new and different things. (I have also seen a nutritionist and embarked on a healthy eating program.)

 

When offered an opportunity to do something, I find myself asking "Why not?" rather than "Why?"

 

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I can't wait to find out.

 

"Beyond the blue horizon lies a rising sun!"

 

It's time to go exploring.

 

What new horizons are facing you?

 

How will you find the rising sun?

 

 

Nowo

In Silent Witness

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,

Between the crosses, row on row...

The stones stand in silent witness.

"Dress Right, Dress!" 

"Cover Down."

"Report."

"All present and accounted for, Sir."

Soldiers in eternal formation, far from home, awaiting orders from the Commander.

They came here from factories and fields, from small town, large city, and every place in between. But they came.

The rich came in spite of their riches, the poor because of their poverty.

Some eagerly volunteered. Others were drafted. A few enlisted to avoid nasty consequences involving the law. But, by whatever means and circumstances, they came.

They learned the trade of soldier, of sailor, of airman, and marine. Those who came seeking adventure learned of boredom; those who sought action, the frustration of "Hurry up and wait". Those who sought glory, the horror of battle.

There were gung-ho and gold bricks, good soldiers and goof-offs, leaders and followers alike. As in life, there were those who made things happen, those watched things happen and those who stood around asking "What happened?" And there were always ten percent who never got the word.

Whether or not they ever knew one another, they are now brothers, forever bound together by circumstances and events not of their own making.

In far off places, in Arlington, Virginia, in military cemeteries, in church yards across the nation and in sites forgotten by all except God, their stones stand in silent witness.

To them, we owe a debt of gratitude.

To them, we owe our lives and the life of this nation.

To them, we owe our present days and our children's future years.

Of the entire year, this weekend is set aside to remember and honor those to whom the stones stand in silent witness.

How can we remember, how honor, how repay their sacrifice?

How can we try?

How will you this weekend?

(Originally Published in May 2013)

What Difference Does It Make?

In testimony before the Senate committee investigating the attack on the US installation and annex in Benghazi in Libya that resulted in the death of US Ambassador Stephens and three other Americans, then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton responded to a question with the following statement:

"With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because some guys out for a walk one night decided to kill some Americans?

What difference at this point does it make?

It is our job at this point to figure out and do everything we can to prevent it from happening again."

Secretary Clinton is correct in her statement that it our job to figure out and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.

Her statement that the cause of the "protest", now known to be a terrorist attack, makes no difference is despicable. Her implication that the death of four Americans "at this point" makes no difference is deeply offensive. And emerging facts showing Americans in harm's way denied possible aid is a national outrage.

I am sorry, Madam Secretary, but even at this point it makes a considerable difference to me, to the families of the four dead, and to the citizens of the nation.

It's a matter of national character.

Americans do not abandon Americans in harm's way fighting for their lives. Americans instinctively run to the sound of the guns.

Americans do not deny support to their comrades in arms even if such support may prove to little or too late.

Neither do Americans do less than all possible to secure vulnerable positions. The life of even one American official in a foreign country is more important than the approbation of ten thousand locals.

It is more in the American nature to attempt big things against seemingly insurmountable odds and to triumph than to give up the attempt without trying.

Madam Secretary, you are wrong. You severely misjudge the Nation you were representing.

We have four dead Americans and that makes all the difference in the world.

Response to Evil

A spirit of evil has been loosed in the world; a spirit of rage, of anger, of vengeance; a spirit that delights in the infliction of severe undeserved pain; a spirit so convinced of the rightness of its cause that any means is justified in reaching its objectives; a spirit of cowardice that delights in the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children in its own name.

Evil was active in the 1940s when Jews, gypsies, and the feeble minded were marched off to Nazi death camps. It was present in the gulags of Soviet Russia when more millions were purged, never to be seen again. It was present in China during the great cultural revolution an again in the killing fields of Cambodia, all of which happened far from our shores.

Evil touched us on 9/11 when airliners full of passengers were used to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Only courageous passengers  prevented a fourth aircraft from reaching its target.

Evil touched us today when two explosive devices were detonated close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon, injuring, maiming, and killing innocent runners and fans who came to see the race.

Evil is shocking. Evil is senseless. Evil is non-selective. And evil strikes fear into normally independent people through the infliction of undeserved punishment and severe pain. Experiencing evil and wishing to avoid more undeserved pain leads to compliance, even when such compliance is an abomination.

But evil need not always lead to compliance.  Rather, it can lead to righteous anger and a clear resolve evil shall not triumph. And this resolve causes the strong to rise up and oppose evil.

Today, we have looked into the eye of evil.

Each of us must now choose how we will respond.

Will we respond with fear and compliance lest evil visit us again?

Or will we go forth with resolve to purge evil from among us?

I have made my choice.

Now, you must make yours.

First Day of Spring

Vernal equinox.

Comforting words to the ear.

First day of spring.

Time of renewal,

new life, new growth and new hope.

Vernal equinox.

Today, it is spring.

At least astronomically.

Vernal equinox.

Shortly after seven am on Wednesday, the sun, in its annual journey, crossed the equator and it became spring.  It happens every year.  We call it the vernal equinox and use it to mark the end of winter.

Unfortunately, this year spring denoted by the position of the sun on the horizon is not the same thing as spring experienced in the body. Given the weather around the nation, warmth seems weeks away.

Light has returned. Heat has not.

The groundhog who said winter was over six weeks ago lied.

Country comedienne Minnie Pearl probably said it best.  Cousin Minnie, with a big smile, is quoted as saying "My feller told me I look like the first breath of spring!"

"Really, Cousin Minnie?" the interviewer would ask. "Those were his exact words?"

"Well", says Cousin Minnie, looking down, "What he said was 'You look like the end of a hard winter." (pause, big smile) "But they mean the same thing!"

Today, I'm not so sure of Cousin Minnie's conclusion. Rather, I find myself at the end of a hard winter while continuing to anticipate the first breath of spring.

How about you?

Is today the end of a hard winter or the first breath of spring?

Only you can say.

I Could be a Writer!

In a press conference marking the third anniversary of Obamacare’s passage, former House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the health care law "fulfills the promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" because it allows people to leave jobs that include health insurance as a benefit. "Just think", she stated "... you could be a photographer or writer, start your own business, be self-employed, as well as change jobs or start a business and not have to be constrained by whether you had affordable and accessible quality health care."
 

I can be a photographer or a writer, Ms. Pelosi? 

Really?

I’m already a writer, dammit! My decision to become one had nothing to do with health care.

I write because I like to write and am under the possibly misguided assumption that I have something to say -- something other people might actually like or otherwise profit from reading. 

Healthcare availability had nothing to do with it.

It probably never will.

I hate to rain on your parade, Ms. Congressperson, but very few people go to work for the purpose of obtaining health care. Most of us work to put food on the table and a roof overhead. Some lucky few of us actually work because we really like doing what we do, and when you like doing what you do and it's putting food on the table life is very fulfilling.

The availability of government sponsored health care has nothing to do with it.

How about you, dear reader. 

Why do you work at what you do?

Do you work for the health care?

Will government sponsored health care make your life that much better?