These are my first words to you in my new blog, so they are very special to me. I am grateful that you took a moment of your time to spend it here.
Why does the world need another blog? The truth is, it doesn’t. Kurt Vonnegut directs us to write to please just one person. His was his sister. Mine, well I will keep that to myself for now. But I get it. I get what Kurt Vonnegut meant. It centers you and focusing is easy because you just imagine that you’re talking to that person. Fascinating. So, I’m writing for that person, whether the world needs it or not.
The purpose of my blog is to remind Americans that we live in a great democracy, but it is fragile. I want to encourage readers to read history and understand its relevance to the issues we’re facing in our country today. I seek to understand the world a little better and make the world a little better. I love democracy because it means that we all share collectively in choosing our lawmakers (and yes a republic is STILL a form of democracy), and we all have a say in our future. I despise fascism because the images of those innocent children sent summarily to the gas chambers in Auschwitz are forever burned in my memory.
While I will write my observations about daily life and attempt to find humor in them, my focus will be on life’s big questions, because they are more interesting to me and have a longer-term impact not only on our own lives but on our children and grandchildren.
Finally, I’m writing with a theme of hope. I’m not an idealist. I’m a realist, with a healthy sprinkling of optimism. After all, we are all passengers on Spaceship Earth as visionary Buckminster Fuller wrote in 1968. It starts with respect for others who aren’t like us, with different upbringings and different cultural backgrounds. All of those differences make getting along difficult, but not impossible. As Stephen Covey famously taught us, we must seek first to understand, then be understood. That is the essence of win-win.
So where will I go from here? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty certain that I will find a path that feels right.