Month: February 2026

I look at the world and I see two very different versions of life in 2026. The news is filled with chilling stories that point to our inability to agree on how things should be done let alone just get along. There is a great division of beliefs regarding what our democratic republic should be. At the same time when I sit quietly with a single individual I find that we have more in common than the nightly news would let us believe. In truth most of us just want to live and let live but that is not a story that is exciting enough for those intent on changing the world to fit their dreams of power.

From the beginning of time there have been people who wanted to foist their views about life on everyone else. Great evils have been done in the name of progress and glory. There always seems to be someone or some group that manages to cover their bad intentions with promises of better lives for everyone else. We see that in today’s world more clearly than ever and yet most of us have little idea what we should do to curb the injustices that seem to grow ever more rampant. In fact, we can’t seem to agree on who or what is unjust, so we spend a great deal of time quibbling with each other rather than truly solving our real problems. 

Most of us spend our days surviving from one moment to the next. We work when we are young and hopefully set aside enough of a nest egg to live out our senior years with quiet dignity. We celebrate our families and our circle of friends that grows smaller and smaller as we age and watch people leave this earth. We try to prioritize our thoughts and actions to make our lives as uncomplicated and comfortable as possible. That takes time and effort that we don’t really want to spend on analyzing the political landscape. Instead of doing the research ourselves we turn to sources that we trust to provide us with truth and rarely question even the most ridiculous accounts of what is reality. 

I admit to once tuning in regularly to Fox News. It seemed to have a presence everywhere and for a time I naively believed that it simply offered me a slightly different point of view than ABC, CBS, NBC or PBS. My time as a debater taught me to consider different points of view but it also taught me to verify information. It does not take long to do so and the truth is often counter to the ways in which information is presented. Any of us can become victims of propaganda when we only listen to the one source that feels comfortable and aligned with our ways of thinking. We don’t have time to gather truth by doing our own investigations or questioning the validity of information, so we just go along with other people’s points of view. 

We humans are very complex. Our worldviews are shaped by every experience we have ever had. Our values come from our experiences and our needs. As we live through years and then decades we meet new people and either enjoy or endure new adventures. All of these things mold us and create a foundation for our beliefs and how we see others. We often cling so tightly to a certain mindset that we are unwilling to accept that there may be more than one way of living that we may not understand but should certainly allow. 

We all have dreams and fears and questions about our individual places and values in the universe. We often ask “what’s it all about?” For some structure and strict rules are comforting. For others the freedom to be different, to test the waters, to question the mundane is the only way to live. It can be frightening for some among us to hear someone describing the kind of life in which everyone has equal value and has the freedom to be themselves.

It is difficult for humans to balance their dreams with their fears. We are all too aware that not everyone is open, truthful, kind and  giving. We have been burned by bullies, liars and thieves. It is easy to be so wary of getting hurt that we begin to see danger where there is none. We are kind souls who keep loaded guns just in case we may need them to defend ourselves. We are deeply spiritual and religious but we vote for individuals who seem to not fully care for all of the people, especially those not like them. We walk around with our prejudices without even knowing that we have them. 

I have learned to be wary of power seekers who seem more inclined to line their pockets than to truly give of themselves to all of society. I cringe at anyone who bullies to get things done. I question the validity of people who constantly boast about themselves while belittling others. I find that the most impressive people are quiet rather than loud. Nonetheless, I understand that others would disagree with me and insist that we need strongmen to guide us not those who appear to be naive and unaware of how to lead. Still I simply cannot condone the actions of anyone who continually hurts others.

I do understand how different each of us is. I have mentored teachers who took off from ground zero and never needed any assistance to be successful and others who required much time and patience to learn how to do their jobs well. There were those who were able to walk cold into a classroom and dazzle the students with incredible lessons and those who needed step by step instructions and scripts. I have sat in meetings where half of the people wanted to throw the book at a recalcitrant student and the other half insisted that there were better ways of  altering bad behaviors. 

There is much talk about sitting down with one another to find common ground. I think the one on one among friends has much possibility but I do not believe the many of our world leaders would be willing to change. In particular our current president in the United States never responds to criticism nor does he ever admit that he might have been wrong. He seems to be incapable of working for all of the people, especially those whose viewpoints are so different from his own. It is therein that we have a problem as a nation. We no longer have three independent branches of government but most decisions are being made by one authoritarian who threatens anyone who dares to challenge him. 

So this is the conundrum that I face. I can listen all day long to people who think that our president is a great man and I might even understand why they believe it is so, but they generally are unwilling to learn why I fear for my country when I see what he is doing. We can air our differences but never seem to find common ground. I leave such discussions filled with questions and frustrations. I find myself wondering why we are so terribly divided and wonder if there is ever a way to get beyond the impasse that is stifling our democracy. 

I believe there is a way to get along. There are things that we can do that provide freedom and opportunity to all. It begins without an insistence that all three hundred million of us have to be clones of one belief system. We must return to ways that honor all of the personal beliefs regarding religion, sexuality and other areas of life that are really none of our business. Instead we need to concentrate on providing for one another and making certain that everyone has a chance to get healthcare, have enough food to thrive, enjoy education and achieve personal dreams. We are a land of great wealth and industry. It’s time that we concentrate on using that for the good of all. We are a vast community of many cultures and our duty is to honor each other by insisting that those who lead us will never use their power to hurt any of us. 

I suppose that I have always wanted to be a writer. Even as a child I created little stories and then books and a neighborhood newspaper. All of it was recorded by hand with my own illustrations. None of it went beyond the boundaries of the street where I lived. Still, I fancied myself as an author who would one day be famous for her creativity and wit. 

Sadly none of that came to be, not even in high school when the teacher that I had for all four years challenged us to write a theme every single week. I would sweat bullets over the prompt until it was do or die on Sunday evenings. Try as I may I never once had the honor of my teacher reading my work to the rest of the class. As I listened to the offerings of my classmates I wondered where they got their incredible ideas and how I might one day create something worthy of praise. 

I wrote a great deal of prose in college and managed to earn high grades on my papers but I wanted to do more than write reviews or compile facts in a persuasive argument. It was not until I was in my senior year that my work began to receive some notice and I even received several invitations to continue my education in the art of writing through a program that was new to my university. Since I needed to get cracking with my career to earn some money I passed on that idea and settled into the life of a teacher. Ironically I spent all of my years teaching mathematics because the first principal who hired me did not need my English major but was taken by my minor in math. 

Since retiring I ply my mediocre talent with blogs that I compose five days a week. I seem to hit a bullseye of delight now and again but I have never been discovered as the next great journalist or story teller even as I dream of such a thing happening. I suppose that I get enough joy out of writing to offset the fact that I mostly seem to be doing it for myself. 

Just when I think that my skills are improving I read a daily blurb from someone like Anne Lamott and I suddenly realize that there is a vast difference between an amateur and someone who truly has a gift. Anne is one of those incredible authors who strings words together in such a way that they light up the page like a fireworks show. I am in awe each and every time that I enjoy the way that she is able to take an ordinary topic and make it feel like one of the most extraordinary things that I have ever read. 

Some writers like Stephen King have such a facility with words that even a short political dig comes across as memorable and brilliant. I suspect that there is not a class that can teach such skills. There has to be some kind of innate talent that begins on the day of birth when they begin observing the world around them. Their words are magical in their ability to bring ideas to life.

My parents created an almost spiritual reverence for genius in me that wraps me in a kind of elation when I encounter a wordsmith. My worship and envy of them almost always coincides with wonder of how they became as good at delivering ideas as they are. I suppose it’s the same kind of admiration that a wannabe athlete experiences watching Michael Jordan or Caitlyn Clark. 

I’ll keep reading the best of the best and pecking on the keys of my laptop in a quest to one day write something so wonderful that anyone who reads it will feel exactly the way I was hoping to coax them to be. I want to hit the kind of high note that nobody ever forgets. I know its in me somewhere if only for that one great moment. 

I laugh as I reveal my inner feelings because there was a day when one of my students just knew that he was destined to be the next basketball great. He was well under six feet tall and mostly sat on the bench during the games that his mediocre team played. I did not want to murder his dream because I truly understand how hurtful such truth can be. Instead I encouraged him to develop as many of his talents as possible so that if the career as a basketball star did not work out he would still have a backup plan like I did with my teaching. He tried several pathways but eventually found his own kind of joy in computer work. Now he simply enjoys a quick game of basketball with his buddies after work. I suppose this is what I did with my own career, so I wonder if he still dreams of dunking the winning ball in a major game as I do in wondering if my writing will ever be known beyond the limits of my tiny group of readers. I suppose that everyone sometimes imagines what it would be like to rise above the mundane.