As the election, the economy, and the best season in recent Saturday Night Live history recedes, an emancipating dose of change propels us forward. In the quiet of the 7th night of January, as dual storm warnings keep popping up on my computer, I write this suspended between snow advisories and flash flood warnings.
Only in Pend Oreille County could both events appear on the schedule at the same time.
The quiet up here tonight is loud. Even with the snow muffling everything, blanketing every exposed surface and outcropping, I hear this roaring reckoning. The future competes for my attention while at the same time I try to process all that was last year.
I had really high expectations for the holidays. I kept telling myself that this year things would be different. This year I’d have time off during Christmas. This year I’d have an opportunity to slow down. This year I’d appreciate the lights, the festivities, and the opportunity to spend time with those I love.
But I did not expect that this year I would also become so acquainted with “end times snow”. Thus the holidays became a blur of 8 hour commutes, shoveling, and constant calculations of the weight of snow verses roof snow load.
As the pictures on both side of this post demonstrate, snow came quickly and with a vengeance. I think it had something to do with my mentioning to Kevin on December 15th that I thought it was going to be a mild winter. Up until that point, we’d had no snow. The ground remained naked and defoliated in anticipation of winter and I thought that such nakedness pointed to a respite from last year’s record breaking snow.
No sooner had the words left my lips then the next day it began to snow.
I didn’t mind this change at first. All of the families I have come to love and admire over these years of living in this valley were planning a new tradition---a holiday tour of homes. I was to be one of the hosts.
We started at one end of the Calispel Valley, traveled up river to Newport, and then turned back on the opposite side of the river, retracing our travel downriver toward Cusick. In near blizzard conditions, we visited nearly a dozen homes that night caravanning nearly 50 miles. At each stop, with each family’s interpretation and display of holiday traditions, I began to feel my cynicism melt.
The snow, with perfect timing began earlier that Friday afternoon. It was relentless, piling up quick and deep. The effect became dazzling and magical, especially as that first major snowfall began to blanket my Spruce and Fir tree’s piled heavy with Christmas lights. Just in time for each carload of guests to arrive, this display became the focal point of the tour of my home. With each subsequent stop that night, I began to feel a sense of Christmas and renewal. It is a sense that remains with me even now.
There is so much goodness here. It is intoxicating.
If only those values were as celebrated with the same relish at the higher levels of society, as here, our current status might be different.
But as I am already 7 days into 2009, I am not yet ready to let go of 2008. I know it is a time of great uncertainty everywhere. All the things we’ve taken for granted---our 401 k’s, our property values, and even our trust in the most basic of institutions, have been shaken. In other parts of the world, I know the worries we fret over would be a luxury, but to us, these concerns remain all consuming.
I see blame in a multitude of directions. But more importantly, I also see hope rising from the ashes of where our future expectations still steam doused with this present reality. I suppose this is why I feel caught suspended between last year and this future one. I have much to be thankful for: Health, Friendship, and Opportunity. If we look for these things, despite the carnage left by the Republicans, they remain brilliantly available in every direction.
But if we look at the carnage---the double speak of ownership societies, homeland security initiatives, and foreign policy fiascos suspended in fraud, the fallout from these missteps can quickly overwhelm the possibility of where this year can take us. The challenge of 2009 is that we must not accept the opinions of any of those who have lead us here. They can no longer rephrase reality or sound bite us into submission. We can not allow the same voices who have suspended our potential, to drag us away again from optimism and belief.
There is no credible evidence, anywhere, that the New Deal did not drag us out of the great depression. Yet already the distortionists from FOX News, those very same folks who sold us the last bill of lies, are already spouting new ones. Talking point gems like Sean Hannity’s addiction to referring to the current crisis as the Obama Recession, and escalated fear hyping of irresponsible tax and spend deficits that spew from conservative talking heads are hollow. The ruinous policies of Republican economic theory are already falling down like ash on the remains of Detroit, Wallstreet and Mainstreet. The few Republicans still stand standing can no longer ignore abundant evidence that the recent policies of lax regulatory oversight, deregulation, and a rush to embrace every free trade policy are precisely what has created this mess.
We need to call out those who have sold us out. We need to shame them and shed light on the distractions they’ve created that allowed them to plunder and offshore our birthright. We need to stand tall and say these values are no longer acceptable in a place as great as this.
We are the change we have been waiting for. We just have to find the courage to believe it.
No comments:
Post a Comment