No Time For Negativity

The challenges and opportunities that face us in these complicated times cannot be met by using devisive smug sarcasm or sardonic humor. The politicians that are seeking leadership positions in The United States should not stoop to such tactics in these times. I find it impossible to imagine Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy wasting valuable time plotting ways to insult or injure rivals when the most important issues of their time were facing them. Lord Kames of England said that no person did a designed injury to another but at the same time did greater to himself. Honesty and humility are qualities that are in short supply. They are character traits that we must demand in this political season. Our new leaders will guide us through the storm or allow us to perish in its’ wake.

Labor Day & Honoring Labor

It is Labor Day. All of these holidays are starting to look the same nowadays. Backyard cookouts and fireworks made it feel like The Fourth of July! It is a good time for all of us to look at the state of labor in this country. We are not doing very well. Working people are struggling and poverty is increasing. Labor Unions have been virtually powerless since President Reagan hired scabs to disempower Air Traffic Controllers in 1981. Big business has done well and employers are unafraid to overwork and to underpay. The results have been catastrophic.

Nearly one-fifth of all children (17.6%) live in poverty; about two thirds have one or more working parent. Since 1992, the share of poor children with at least one parent working full-time has increased by 60 percent.

According to the Current Population Survey conducted by the Census Bureau in 2005, nearly 16 million people had incomes below half of the poverty level: less than $9,903 for a family of four or $5,080 for an individual. The poverty threshold in 2005 was $19,971 for a family of four or $9,973 for an individual in 2005. According to a report by McClatchy Newspapers the percentage of people living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high. The analysis found that the number of severely poor people has grown by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005.

In 2005, 24 percent of all workers had year-round, full-time work that did not pay enough to keep a family of four above the poverty threshold. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has calculated that the share of jobs requiring a high school diploma or less will remain virtually stable in the next 7 years at around 47% percent. Although more jobs will be created in those years, according to the Bureau of Labor Standards, 18 of the 30 fastest growing job categories pay low or very low wages and are the least likely to provide employer-based benefits such as health care, sick leave, day care benefits, and educational benefits.

At the 350 largest public companies, the average CEO takes one hour and fifty-five minutes to earn the annual pay of a full-time minimum-wage worker.

So as we celebrate with Labor Day Sales, Jerry Lewis and the closeness of family and friends today let's honor the people who work by promising to deliver real change this year. We have a voice. We have the right to vote.

The Olympic Games

The Beijing Olympic Games begin today, 08/08/2008. The number "8" is traditionally associated with wealth and prosperity in Asian cultures. It is also, in its' laying down form, the symbol of eternity. This date only occurs once every 100 years...and it will be the only time in most of our lives that the combination of numbers will occur. What a celebration of life! Not in terms of money and possessions...but the real riches that are offered to us on this once-in-a-lifetime occasion. We already possess the material wealth and prosperity that it takes to feed a hungry world and to eliminate much illness. Eternity asks us to participate. I think it is important to allow the spectacular gathering of the world's best athletes to serve as a symbol of hope for cooperation. We will always have political differences and there is certainly plenty of human suffering to showcase in the world today. But this event shows that we CAN participate as one world and that there ARE possibilities. Let's spend some of this time NOT taking ourselves so seriously and witness the games for what they are. Let's give thanks for the wealth and prosperity that has been given to us and seek more ways to distribute it to those in need.

The Fourth of July

It is a grand celebration of independence and freedom that we offer on The Fourth of July! We have struggled for two hundred and thirty two years in an effort to live-out and to improve upon ideas and dreams of those who courageously stood in defiance of tyranny. We continue to evolve and, as we do so, become the realization of those hopes and passions that drove our ancestors. We create new and beautiful art and literature, music and dance. We advance medicine, science, and technology. We work for social justice and peace. We fight and die in foreign lands. We welcome strangers from borders that are increasingly guarded. We labor long hours at jobs that consume us in order to raise new generations of patriots. We stand for civil rights and The Bill of Rights. We engage in politics and unpopular causes despite the leanings of the majority. We worship or chose not to worship without fear of reprisal.

This is The United States of America. May we never cease to appreciate who we are. May we never cease to desire change. May we always strive for improvement.

Tim Russert ~ “Timmy We Hardly Knew Ye”

I was taking a look at my email yesterday...quickly deleting the accumulating garbage...when I saw one from NCforObama entitled Tim Russert Has Died. My thought was that "this is not funny". I followed the link to find out that it was true. Tim and I were both born in 1950. He was not someone that I ever met in person but felt like he was one of my high school friends. Routines on Sunday morning revolved around being promptly present with breakfast in front of Tim at 9:00. We never called it Meet The Press. It was a call from from my wife at the porch to the back yard where I was working saying "Tim will be on in ten minutes...hurry up!". It almost makes me feel silly now in a way. We sound like my parents. But the truth is...Tim Russert was THAT important. His interviews and discussions were revealing and allowed us to use our own brains. They educated us without dosing us with liberal or conservative values. He was a good natured, sports loving, family man...from my generation. He spoke the truth. Kenneth O’Donnell and David Powers wrote a book of memories about President Kennedy called “Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye” using the title of an old Irish ballad for the title. Here, in Tim Russert, is a fine Irish American life called home too soon as well. Timmy…We Hardly Knew Ye. There are none like him...and we will miss him greatly.

Finding Delight

I was having an especially difficult time adjusting to my life as a divorced man in early recovery many years ago. My mind was racing, my new job was confusing and I was filled with regret and doubt. It was a beautiful mid spring day in Champaign, Illinois and I decided to get out of the office and take a walk on the downtown mall. Just as I rounded the corner a voice greeted me with a cheerful "How-do" (An old Midwestern hello). I looked up to see a weathered homeless man sitting on a bench in the middle of what used to be the main street. "Hello", I said. He went on..."You know, I used to sit here when this was a street and I would watch the cars go up one side of the road and back down the other. Now I get to sit here and watch the people just walk and talk and walk up one side of this mall and down the other side." I looked at him blankly and said "Oh?". He grinned toothlessly with warm understanding eyes and said words that I have never forgotten. "I delight in it...I delight in it". My spirits lifted. I noticed that the air was cleaned with a morning shower and the bright prairie sun glistened. He grasped what I had failed to grasp. He understood how simply delightful even the most simple things can be...and are.

Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth century Dominican mystic theologian said "wisdom consists in doing the next thing that you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it". Such wisdom escapes us in our daily journey all too often. The picture that I attached to the blog is one that I took on a recent trip to Maui. It is on a road that leads to a delightful part of the island that is less visited than the other parts. Well worth the slow and winding trip with multiple stops and pullovers. No hurry, no worries...just hang loose. Delight in it today.

Expectations & Shakeups

Probably the most amazing thing about Easter and about Recovery is the reversal of expectations. The situation on Good Friday and Holy Saturday is stark and raw. Nothing is going to change this reality. People and their families who are in the whirlwind of addiction can imagine no end to the downward spiral that is smashing and destroying everything in its path. You wake up in the morning with expectations that everything is going to be the same and the most amazing thing has happened. There is an empty tomb. The one who was dead is alive. And even better than that…everything is going to be okay. Better than okay!

Who’d ‘a thunk it? Who would believe it? In one brush stroke the world view changes from black and white to color. It is like the scene from the Wonderful Wizard of Oz when the film changes from Kansas to Munchkinland. Color everywhere. The storm is over. The witch is dead. How did it all happen? The truth is that things had been set in motion for some time but we were unaware. The miracle was waiting for today. The miracle is today.

We respond to this shakeup with awe. The new world at our feet is boundless. The promises are fulfilled in each step forward. Recovery from addiction and salvation from bondage are virtually one in the same. Senator Barack Obama talks about the Audacity of Hope. There is also an Audacity of Easter and an Audacity of Recovery. Life is new and we have the power of change in every step that we take.