The wheel of the year is turning. Here in DC, at 5:30 p.m. the sky is still light. Just a couple of weeks ago, 5:30 was night time. The days are expanding, and though winter is far from over, there's hope that spring will arrive, as usual, in late March. Oh yeah.
It is not springtime for the American empire. Listening to the president speak last night, what I remembered (haven't thought about it for awhile) is that we can step back gracefully or we can fall face first into disgrace. The option of being the big neighborhood bully of the world is no longer viable. We have to stop. We will stop or be stopped, one way or another. No empire is everlasting. The choice is ours as to how the decline of our empire unfolds. It really isn't all up to Obama. He's just one guy.
A blog friend tells me that he saw this bumper sticker: Dear God, please make me the kind of person President Obama thinks I am. May it be true! May we all wake up from our anger, impatience, and our sense of entitlement. May we stop blaming each other and get to work. May our eyes and hearts open. Are you listening, God? Are you listening, America? C'mon.
25 comments:
It's snowing outside as I type this, but I also feel the wheel of the year turning. I was just remarking this week that the days are getting perceptively longer and the light seems brighter. I'm ready for spring already, but we have another two months (or so) to go!
I did not watch the State of the Union address, but I read about it this morning. I think Obama is genuinely trying to turn this country around, and shame on those whose partisanship prevents them from working with him.
Perfect bumper sticker.
I don't see this country going down gracefully. It's too arrogant.
Obama made me cry a bit last night. Not so much for his prose, although that was compelling. It was for the steel faces in the audience. It is time for the seasons to change, indeed. Pray it isn't at the hands of the raging Vandals riding into Rome! Or, worse yet, those that live among us. Thanks for being one of the stick-outs, Reya. EFH
I pass a small sheep farm on my way to & from work every day. Just this week I noticed that it wasn't dark when I drove by - I could see the silly sheep standing on top of their hay bale. Made me smile.
Unlike the feeling I have about our country. Surely there's been angst like this in the past & we've survived? It's depressing to think otherwise (sticking my head back in the sand)...
Hiya Reya,
"Dear God, please make me the kind of person President Obama thinks I am." ...I was thinking during the State of the Union Address last night that President Obama really does make a good parent.
Congress, play nice together, we are on the same team.
Media, stop sowing overly dramatic seeds of contension.
Supreme Court, we know you are all very smart but you have to use your brains.
If you all don't sharpen up the whole family is going to continue to suffer.
I loved it that he looked right at the Supreme Court justices and told them what he thought. Damn, he's good.
I want that bumper sticker!
Thank you, Reya. Your post give me hope.
It's so true!
Love your revised header, by the way.
i want that bumper sticker!
love and open hearts
Yes, Obama has touched our hearts and our intellects. Great post, Reya.
thnx for you post this morning Ms Reya. I gave you credit for my inspiration to post this morning. Eventhough we have different perspectives, I do soo agree with the basis of what you say. thnx glenn
great post reya...i listened to some of obama's speech driving to school on the bbc...at least i think it was the same speech, where he said something about root canals being about as popular as bank payouts...or something to that effect? great bumper sticker too. lots love xxx j and i LOVE obama. who DOESN'T? at least, everyone loves him around these parts. . .everyone.
I started fixating on the spring part (we are not dusk-y until almost 5 now; woo hoo), but then this post took a dramatic turn.
I watch America from afar -- hopefully, but anxiously.
I didn't get to hear his speach as I was working so I now have to try to find it. But my friend, Susan, emailed me and said she felt tears rolling down her cheeks and at points, found herself shouting woo hoo!
C'mon, people, now...smile on your brother...everybody get together and try to love one another..
If I were closer, I'd be at your Reiki class. Just to come and do the work with you...oh, yeah!
Is there going to be the silent poetry reading this year?
I found his attention to the justices as well as his criticism of the so called "majority/minority" refreshing. The guy is one incredible speech maker and much of what he said makes sense to me. Some of the pundits this AM thought he was pleading for health care reform. Perhaps he just wants the opponents to keep their minds open. Who knows? Too soon to tell.
Glenn I think it's perfectly fine to see the world from different perspectives. I think variety of opinion is GOOD. We're so rigid at this moment in time. It kind of freaks me out.
reya--keep the dialogue going--you are on the correct (notice I did not use right) wavelength--it is about momentum and belief--c
I used to be a progressive thinker but then somewhere I realized it meant progressives are really repressors. I think about what JFK said; "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Somewhere it hit me that the more our government does for us, the less we are willing to do for ourselves.
When you are now looking at 4 and 5 generations on welfare, and these people have no desire to change the way they live, I now realize that by us continuing to let them stay on welfare they will never better theirselves. Many of these people do have a sense of entitlement and "expect" the check to arrive, but so many of them are lost souls. And maybe if the they knew the "check" was going to stop coming one day then maybe they would try to do something to improve their way of life. I have no problem with those that need some help, but I do have problems with those that refuse to help theirselves.
There is so much wrong with our government and taxing us to death is probably the worst thing they do. Every level of government feels they have a "right" to their share of our paychecks, and then they even have so many hidden taxes. Every "bill" I pay has a whole list of "extra" taxes. First they start out as temporary, and then they soon become permanent. At one time none of these taxes were on the bills.
I really worry about those on fixed incomes, how can anyone expect them to survive with all these additional taxes.
If the government stopped taxing us to death then maybe we would be able to stop our economy from falling into a further recession. We may not have a King or Queen, but we really do have a Royal Pain in the A** Government.
I guess I could go on and on about things that I think our government needs to change but less taxes would be the best change. I think that is why more and more of us are becoming Independents, since both parties go crazy with power and taking us to the cleaners.
I think if Obama would put a stop to all this over taxing then he would go down in history as a great President. But it seems that is not likely to happen, although one can only hope and pray for the change he promised.
Actions speak louder than words, and we need action. They really do need to start working together for the people, instead of working for their own beliefs.
All right I better get off the band wagon. Sorry for getting on it.
God bless.
I loved your friend's sticker - but then I loved the post as a whole. Great visuals, too. An interesting blog.
These words from the previous post, "the sinking ship of our empire" and these from this post, "No empire is everlasting. The choice is ours as to how the decline of our empire unfolds..." echo my own thoughts over the past few months. It's disheartening to see the ugliness unmitigated by positive purposefulness. I don't think America is listening - it's too busy shouting.
Yes, spring will arrive soon. And how splendid that will be.
Thank you for stopping in and leaving your kind comment over at Ronda's place. Appreciate that. :-)
We are not the first Americans to wonder of our time has past, and likely not the last.
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