SOD - Same Old Dilemma

I'm starting to think like Yogi Berra. It's deja vu all over again.

Nothing seems to work. Nothing functions as it should. Real discussion is next to impossible. Nobody is really responsible for anything. Everybody else is all screwed up. You really can't get anything accomplished. A major election is bearing down on the Americans, and there are more and more of them most likely thinking that there's no way that they can't waste their vote (a truly American idea). And those of us who think they have a clue are proposing one solution after another that may in fact solve one problem, but each of these "solutions" invariably causes a half-a-dozen new problems.

No, it's not a happy place. Deja vu all over again is what we know as a rut. We're in one, and it's an exasperating one on top of everything else. Poor us.

Well, no. Yes, nothing works, and we're all in an exasperating rut, but I'm afraid you're not going to get any pity from me.

It's not that I'm a pitiless person, far from it. I like to think, and I do try whenever possible, to awaken my own sense of empathy and compassion for anyone who finds him or herself in a inescapable (or perceived inescapable) dilemma. And, I'm especially sensitive and sympathetic toward people who find themselves in dilemmas that are not of their own making. Those are the people I believe we are called to help. We, however, are none of the above.

No, I think I've come to the conclusion that things are just the way we want them. We all know things are "suboptimal", to use a non-word to describe what is really a non-situation. Things don't have to be as they are, but there are precious few of us who want them to be different. And we all know that most folks are only interested in any kind of change if it is a change that provides them some kind of personal advantage: if there's nothing in it for me, why should I be involved at all? Bad question.

What is in it for you is precisely what is in it for everyone else: something different. You get what you ask for, you get what you work for, and you get what you deserve.

If you think things are going to hell in a handbasket, well, don't come crying to me. If things aren't as you like them, there is only one person to blame: yourself.

Yes, in case you missed it: it's all your fault. So, as the Brits like to say, "SOD it."

Brighter tomorrows

Yes, yes, yes ... there has been a good deal of frustration in the last couple of posts. I'll be the first one to admit that. After all, there's a lot to be frustrated about. If you stop to be honest with yourself, there are a lot of things not working these days. A lot is broken. Some things are on their last legs, and if some changes aren't made soon, I'm afraid a lot of people are going to get hurt. I'm not exaggerating. Dying of starvation, being thrown into poverty, losing everything you have, contracting a fatal disease ... those are all very painful, and it is precisely these things that are not occurring less often. All of them are on the rise.

I can't be the only one who see this. I can't be the only one who can figure out that the trajectory we have put ourselves on is not going to end happily without some changes. And, I can't be the only one who has figured out that some of those changes aren't going to be to my liking, but that doesn't make them any less necessary. So here's the deal:

Decide what it is that you want to give up. Everybody has to give up something. Every change starts with ourselves. We don't get more ... we have to give more, so you have to decide what it is that you want to give. It's not about you. It's never been about you. It's about your friends, your family, your children, your grandchildren. It's about people you never met and people you never will meet.

Oh, and before you get carried away, it's not about your political involvement, how you vote, or what shows you watch or what news you listen to. It's about you deciding what you can do to make the world a better place. Not better for you, but better for someone else. If you're not making the world better for someone else, you're not making it better at all.