Politics In Perspective–UPDATED
October 8, 2008 / 5:16 pm • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierToday is one of those days that is so magnificently beautiful, so perfectly balanced and so peaceful that politics and the economy and every worldly trouble fades. Only a month ago, Hurricane Ike decimated wide swaths of Houston and surrounding areas. The ferocity and magnitude of the storm was as humbling as the transcendent perfection is today.
There is a destruction and beauty that can only be created by nature and God and both reveal man to be so insignificant as to be nearly meaningless. Seasons come and go, the sun rises and sets, and the stars stay in their places. The moon controls the tides and forces beyond our understanding move the world and manipulate the internal workings of our own bodies. For all the knowledge man has accumulated, he knows startlingly little about how the universe around him operates.
America will elect a new Commander-In-Chief and he will be woefully inadequate to face the demands of the job. It speaks little of him, but more to the expectations and complexity of the world today.
Please understand: I’m not saying that we, as individuals, have no power. Each person has tremendous power over himself–his own choices, his own path, the trajectory of his own life. That includes deciding to vote and for whom. And as I learned in fifth grade, one vote can make all the difference–lose by one vote and you find that out.
What I am saying is that this election is not the beginning nor the end of anything but a continuation of a story that began over two hundred years ago. Two hundred years isn’t a long time for much of anything. What we have found in those two hundred years is that the American experiment is a good one–better, in fact, than any other form of governance that man has come up with so far.
Still, it’s the best of the worst because it is still a government by man and for man and limited to the limitations of man. The challenge then, is to create an environment in America where the best and the brightest of man has room to succeed for truly, our country is only as strong as the people who make it.
Humans, above all in creation, hold in them the potential for greatness. Sometimes, it takes recognizing our smallness to see the vast possibilities. Today is a beautiful day.
UPDATE:
I guess I’m not the only one thinking transience.
5 Responses to “Politics In Perspective–UPDATED”
By Headless Unicorn Guy on Oct 8, 2008 | Reply
What I am saying is that this election is not the beginning nor the end of anything but a continuation of a story that began over two hundred years ago.
Problem is, Doc, everybody else is screaming “THE END IS NIGH!” from the rooftops with bullhorns set on max.
I’ve even been hit with one blogger screaming that voting for either McCain or Obama is High Treason and all who do so are Traitors — he then started Witnessing to me to accept the Libertarian Party as My Personal LORD and Savior or suffer the fate of all Traitors. If I have to hear “Who Is John Galt?” or “I Am John Galt!” one more time I will not be responsible for what follows. Atlas Shrugged is NOT the Bible (or Koran, the way these guys quote it)!
Everybody’s running around in circles screaming about The End of The World, to the point that Hal Lindsay actually seems like a pillar of reason. Everybody’s living just this side of Left Behind (or its secular equivalent) and finds it all Very Very Exciting.
By Viola J. on Oct 8, 2008 | Reply
I always love it so much when you write from your heart.
By Chalmers on Oct 8, 2008 | Reply
I actually prefer it when you speak from your butt, but hey, what do I know.
Funny always trumps creepy.
By Vanessa on Oct 8, 2008 | Reply
Awesome post! I love your attitude!
It’s a good reminder to all of us.
By Jack on Oct 9, 2008 | Reply
Your post is a good one to consider “before the storm” and for that I am grateful.
One of the problems in today is the heightened anxiety, and the lack of good conversation on both sides of the aisle.
I do take a little umbrage with your final statement.
While I do admire the American experiment in many ways, and wish some of its form of democracy were emulated here- I don’t believe its the best experiment in nation building.
I think the very nature of what you’ve described shows that there’s a lot to be learned from others. New Zealand for example, and my own home and native land Canada.
During the global crisis, its Canadian banks that have the best luck in dominating currently- and there’s good reason for that.
It’s because that there’s a benefit to be found in some social programmes. Certainly we don’t sport the growth or sometimes the lowest job rate of our friend and neighbour in the US, but we have been able, as of late, to weather the storms of an unregulated market a little more handily.
You are spot on when you say that government has gotten too fat. When you point out that earmarks are killing the pocket book. And when special interests rule the roost when citizen action and public good should be fully in sway.
This is why I believe in these dark times, its good to remind ourselves, we’re all God’s children, all a part of the greater “plan” as you put it, and truly, while we may disagree and quibble about left and right, we all deep down want the same thing for ourselves and this great nation.
I worry for America, not just because you folks tanking will harm Canadian economy as well, but because I do believe America can be, and has been a good for the world.
I would not want to see that end.
Jack