Spring: A time of renewal

Today was the first day of spring.  Not officially, but rather it was that first day where the sun was shining, the air was warm and the breeze was a welcome cooling influence.  It was spectacular.  A reminder of why we hibernate through the long, dark and cold winter…it makes this day that much better.  A friend and I decided to take an early evening stroll through the city.  We walked along Walnut Street, down along the river and back through the park.  Everywhere we looked there was energy, life and excitement.

Our discussion for the better part of our long walk focused on relationships.  Not just our own but those of our friends.  It seems that most everyone is lost in a tangled and confused relationship.  We discussed our own dating trials and tribulations.  The frustrations and challenges.  You like them but they don’t like you.  Then they like you and you lack the spark for them.  Even more frustrating is the “timing” required in the modern world of dating.  You have a connection…then they leave for school, a job, are focused on a career or our unavailable, lost in an unknown confusion. 

A dear friend of mine summed it up, a movie quote so I cannot take credit.  “Sometimes I miss her.  Sometimes she misses me…we just never miss each other at the same time.”  As we move along our dating lives I find that single statement sums it up best.  The challenge of dating in our modern world is not finding the right person, its finding the right person, at the right time, in the right place in our lives when we are both equally available.  Sounds complicated.  But then again, maybe not.  What’s meant to be is meant to be. At least I like to believe that. 

So let’s be open-minded, enjoy the wonderment that spring brings, take a risk from time to time and allow ourselves to be vulnerable.  Love has rewards that are worth the risks.

2008: Hope & Change – 2012: Smacked by Reality

The speed of the Presidential election cycle can be nauseating in its length and intensity.  It’s only a matter of weeks until the debates begin amongst the early Republican candidates.  I usually find it annoying when a sitting President is ramping up into full campaign and fundraising mode this early…but not this time!  Go Barrack Go!!!  Hit the road!!! Give speeches all across the fruited plain!!!  Hob nob with the stars and very weird rich people on the Upper West Side.  Whatever it takes to keep you out of Washington and leaving us alone!

The American Dream has always been to do better than the generation before.  To go out in the world and do something, make a difference.  To be allowed to choose to make our own way, to choose to pursue our dreams and heaven forbid maybe even fail.  And just like the generations before us, we want to dust ourselves off and get back in the fight.  But somewhere along the way…starting with FDR and culminating with Obama the dream evolved and changed.  It became more about getting than doing, what’s in it for me and getting the most by doing the least.  Collective Bargaining became a right and rugged individualism became a strange word from the Oregon Trail.  It’s almost as if The Brave New World became a reality, for approximately half the population.

Unfortunately, for Gen X and Gen Y and whatever comes after that the American Dream became derailed with “Hope & Change”.  Amazingly, in only two short years everyday Americans…aka people who have jobs and actually produce something for a living, recognized that  the “Hope & Change” we seek is to be left alone to our own devices.  As we look around the landscape of America we notice something, Gen X and Gen Y are pushing back. 

From the time of the Mayflower until recent decades, each successive generation has been faced with a daunting challenge that each rose up to and overcame.  For some it was a devastating war, natural disasters, economic turmoil and civil and humanitarian challenges.  It’s only recently that certain segments of America…pretty much anyone employed by the Government…began to feel entitled, privileged and sheltered from risk and hardship.  There are now two America’s, those who take and demand ever higher salaries, benefits, pensions and healthcare among other ridiculous demands and those who make a living in the private sector, slog it out for years, saving for a retirement and hoping for the best for the children…all the while being told how selfish they are for not willingly and happily forking over ever more and more in taxes for these “public servants” that are there to “make a difference”.  If only they told us it was to make a difference for themselves.

For Gen X and Gen Y the American Dream is different.  Their generational challenge is probably the most daunting of all.  There is no distant tyrannical dictator, no war to be won with easily distinguished lines.  Our challenge is different.  We are at war with philosophy.  The battle is in our neighborhoods, literally amongst our neighbors.  Those who produce vs those that take.  We have reached a tipping point.  For decades politicians were elected based on ever larger promises of treasure and bounty, unfortunately, none of it was real and there is $14 Trillion of debt to prove it.  Our challenge is to stand up and say No.  To return America back to its founding Philosophy.  To restore its entrepreneurial spirit and reinvent the American Dream.  A dream based not on what we can take but what we can make. 

In 40 or 50 years we will look back on our youth with sentimentality and it will either be with pride or with depravity as we wait for a paltry check from the Government.  Let’s rise to the challenge and restore the American Dream.  It will be a war waged for decades across all fronts: local, state, federal and courts.  But it is a challenge we must win.  The Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers, welcome to the new politics of reality…the curtain is falling on your moment, it will soon be time to step aside…we hope you exit gracefully and wish us luck on the way out.  We’ll need it.  We’ve got a mess to clean up.  Our American Dream, The American Dream depends on us rising to this challenge.