I took a drive today to the city of New Castle, IN, to see about relocating to save some money on bills. For those of you that know me, yes, I did get lost. I eventually did find the place I was looking for, but I saw so much more on this sojourn of mine.....
As I was driving down Highway 67, then down Highway 3, I saw many signs of a country in distress; houses, cars, many other things for sale. All kinds of cars and houses, people looking to get out from under whatever dilemma they find themselves in. I also saw lots of farmland, many cornfields, green and growing. At first, I saw this as a juxtaposition. Our country trying to grow and continue, opposite people who found themselves under duress and selling their possessions to get out from under.
I saw myself in this, looking to cut costs on bills and living expenses, trying to find a way to improve my lot in life. Trying to grow and continue, yet finding myself looking to get from under. With all of this going through my head, I was still enjoying a beautiful Indiana summer's day, cool breezes, one window down (driver's side window doesn't go down), radio blasting classic rock, taking in the scenes flying by me. Then, the word "resiliency" popped into my brain. This, of course, got me to thinking, about what I was doing, and what I was seeing, and, all of a sudden, I began to feel better about things. My situation, other's situations, the country. I know we are struggling right now, and it will take a lot to pull this country out of its economic troubles. But I am now more confident than ever that we can, and will, rise from this, and be alright.
When I saw all those "For Sale" signs, I just naturally assumed the worst; people selling prized possessions to pay bills and get from under. But, then I thought maybe these people are downsizing, or shedding unnecessary expenses, something like that. This is being resilient; recognizing there are things you can do to make expenditures less, to improve your quality of life. Looking for ways to reduce bills to have more to do what is needed, or even wanted. Being resilient. Like the cornfields I drove by, growing with the hope of a better future, green with the promise of better things to come. I processed all of this, and I began to realize what it was going to take to pull this country out of this predicament. The answer, my friends, is us,...
We are the answer. We can no longer depend on government bodies or big business or financial institutions to rescue us from this economic peril. Their interests are vested, and we are not part of their equation. It's going to have to be us. We are going to have to bolster our smaller businesses, our agriculture, our future. We have to begin a grass roots effort to bring this economy, and our country, back to prominence. Granted, this is a massive undertaking, but if we break it up into smaller processes, we can find ways to keep ourselves going, to grow and continue, Great amounts of small campaigns can begin to fix our economy, our towns, and, with a concerted effort, our country.
This is the hope that is there for the taking. It is time to take advantage of it. We have not laid down and stopped; we continue to try to find new ways to improve, and grow, and propser. This is our resiliency. This is what we have lost. We have to grab it, use it, build with it, get better with it. We lost this gift, relying on other entities to pull us out. We must rediscover the long lost art of recapturing our American dream. We must remain resilient in our efforts. And, I know this; we won't stop, ever. With the advent of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, resiliency becomes vital once again. We remember that terrible tragedy, how America got knocked down; but how we came together to raise ourselves and this nation up after that. I am in no way correlating that tragedy to what we are going through today. What I am saying is we need that spirit again, that resiliency, to bring us back once again.
I said it before, and I'll say it from now on; I have no doubt we will rise from this, we have before, we will again. We may get knocked down, but we will get back up, we always do,....
No comments:
Post a Comment