Newsletter Archive
Happy Interdependence Day
Thursday, July 8, 2010
I hope you spent your Independence Day with good company, family and/or friends (one's "chosen family"). We're a special and unique country, born with great promise under extraordinary circumstances. Amidst the fireworks and barbecues, it's always good to ponder and feel some gratitude to our predecessors who worked hard to fulfill that promise.
Most of the public dialogue about our nation's near-term future revolves around the question of who should experience the most pain and shoulder the biggest burdens. The answer often ends up as "anybody but me and my own." I find it an unpleasant discussion, not because the choices ahead are difficult, but because the spirit of generosity and shared responsibility are increasingly absent from the public square, and, it seems, from many people's private feelings.
What I do hope is that the meaning of "me and my own" continues to change, and that through repairing the bonds of trust with each other, the circle of people we consider "our own" might continue to widen. Perhaps one day less energy will be spent identifying and excluding anyone who isn't one of "us." On that day there will be fewer strangers, and we will find it more difficult to see others as outside the circle of "our own."
As just about everyone reading this newsletter will be facing challenges in the times ahead, I hope we'll all try - in the most practical ways - to give each other a hand, look after one another, be worthy of trusting one another, and shoulder our burdens together, as best we can. In doing so, we'll create some cameraderie, joy, and music in these tough times. Happy Interdependence Day!
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Ears and Eyes: What I’m Listening to, Reading, and Watching:
--Music:
Jeff Beck, "The Jeff Beck Group" http://tinyurl.com/232u2mv
Wayne Shorter, "Night Dreamer" http://tinyurl.com/2g6zapf
--Books:
Donald Westlake, "Drowned Hopes" http://tinyurl.com/22kan5u
Charles Seife, "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" http://tinyurl.com/25lrtzm
--Movies:
"Whip It" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_It_(film)
"Mind the Gap" http://terencemichael.com/mind
Most of the public dialogue about our nation's near-term future revolves around the question of who should experience the most pain and shoulder the biggest burdens. The answer often ends up as "anybody but me and my own." I find it an unpleasant discussion, not because the choices ahead are difficult, but because the spirit of generosity and shared responsibility are increasingly absent from the public square, and, it seems, from many people's private feelings.
What I do hope is that the meaning of "me and my own" continues to change, and that through repairing the bonds of trust with each other, the circle of people we consider "our own" might continue to widen. Perhaps one day less energy will be spent identifying and excluding anyone who isn't one of "us." On that day there will be fewer strangers, and we will find it more difficult to see others as outside the circle of "our own."
As just about everyone reading this newsletter will be facing challenges in the times ahead, I hope we'll all try - in the most practical ways - to give each other a hand, look after one another, be worthy of trusting one another, and shoulder our burdens together, as best we can. In doing so, we'll create some cameraderie, joy, and music in these tough times. Happy Interdependence Day!
=================================
Ears and Eyes: What I’m Listening to, Reading, and Watching:
--Music:
Jeff Beck, "The Jeff Beck Group" http://tinyurl.com/232u2mv
Wayne Shorter, "Night Dreamer" http://tinyurl.com/2g6zapf
--Books:
Donald Westlake, "Drowned Hopes" http://tinyurl.com/22kan5u
Charles Seife, "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" http://tinyurl.com/25lrtzm
--Movies:
"Whip It" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_It_(film)
"Mind the Gap" http://terencemichael.com/mind