“Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune.”~ Socrates

Rate the President:

A friend sent me a link to a CBS poll to rate the President’s performance,yesterday. I went to the site and started reading the “chatter” that was left in the section for comments. What hit me like a baseball bat swung by Hercules was the tone of the remarks. The words spelled out strong emotional  loss, suffering and pain. You could just feel it when reading all the vehement responses. I felt their hatred for the bankers and their anger over the fall out of our economy. I understood their feelings expressed by words like “It isn’t fair that the bad guys (the banks) got relief, but why not help the good guys (the middle class or working poor who are now out of work). ” One American wrote: “Look at him travel on Air force 1, wearing his expensive suits with a smug smile on his face. He doesn’t have to worry about his kids who are going to expensive schools. Look at us, out here trying to find a way to fuel up our broken down trucks or feed our children. What future do our kids have? He doesn’t care.” More comments were questioning why the average Joe living next door  has to clean up the banker’s mess when he didn’t break any law or “Why isn’t the President doing more?” The debate was intense.

Americans are angry:

Like me, many are unemployed and struggling, wondering when it will get better. It’s hard to watch the evening news some nights and listen to the percentage of people unemployed or losing a home. Sometimes, it’s hard to hear the anchorman report that “ …new hope for the unemployed… jobs are coming back…” when I still can’t find work.

I empathize with the anger, the frustration; the sadness over hard times and the suffering it has brought to good families. I get it. But I didn’t want to join in the rants and raging, only because it wouldn’t help me feel any better or get me where I need to go.

Momma told me there would be days like this…

Am I mad at the government? Sure! I can’t even collect unemployment benefits from my state because I worked as a teacher in a Catholic School. There is no Federal help for me either because I don’t fit the profile (I’m white, never sold a car, worked in the stock market or for the military.). I’m out of luck because the help available is  “typecast”, like a Hollywood cattle call.

Do you know if you are a certain nationality, the employer who hires you will be rewarded? I just learned that at the Plymouth Career Center. The gal said, ” If you are of one of these nationalities, be sure to add it on your resume…mention the new incentive to hire …the company will get a tax break…”

How is that fair to me? It isn’t. Like the bank or mortgage crisis…it wreaks like a cow pasture…. but I won’t stop to sniff the breeze.

I’m choosing to put my energy elsewhere, because if I focus on the unfairness or hard knocks hitting me, I think my spirit will die.

Fast Tube by Casper

Let me explain:

In 10 months, I’ve lost everything I’ve worked my whole life for. My pension, my retirement, my savings, now my house and my future is uncertain. Without a job, where will I rent? Who will rent to someone who had a 735 credit score a year ago, but now the score ….I don’t even want to know how bad it is.

Yes, I’m angry, sad and discouraged.  I can focus on those miserable feelings which will consume or exhaust me, making my days long, sad, and unproductive or I can try to accept my present situation, despite how hard and unfair it all is.  It’s a tough pill to swallow but I don’t have an alternative. It was forced down my throat and there is nothing I can do about it.

I guess that is what determines who will survive in this present day low period for many Americans.

Is it any different than what the farmer’s endured in the Dust bowl, what  the Japanese Americans put up with on our soil after World War II or what neighborhoods in America deal with yearly when Mother Nature strikes and levels every home on the cult DE sac , from just another terrible Natural Disaster?

Think about it:

**it happens and you can’t stop it from happening. You can choose how you will react. Do you shovel out; do you stay “stuck” in the mess and spew anger and hate; do you look for someone to point your finger at and curse? If you’re going to be a survivor, you will adapt.  Anger is only a distraction that gets in the way when you need to move forward.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”Charles Darwin quote

So what really changes over time?

We recognize when the trends in fashion repeat itself. We laughed when hip huggers, popular in the 70’s, were being worn again by our own middle school “tweens.” Even cropped pants, spotted in the 50’s, made a come back.

History repeats itself too, don’t you think?

The boat filled with our ancestors going to Ellis Island, the farmers of the Dust Bowl, The Japanese Americans after World War II, The Great Depression, the first colonists; the list is endless of what people have to endure in a time period labeled: “hard knocks.” And yet, like fashion, we some how make a come back. We endure.

Even back in the day of Plato and Socrates, people weren’t so different. Sure, they wouldn’t know the difference between an i pod or a Nano, or know what to do with a HP Smart Screen. They were shorter and spoke funny English. But they had dreams, people to love, goals,  worries and had to deal with disaster, heart break, and injustice. The style of clothing is really all that changes. The human spirit stays intact.

Who survives?

Gloria Gaynor and anyone who follows Darwin’s Theory. People who learn to adapt will prevail and find happiness even if the pasture they have to cross stinks from all the cow patties! If you focus only on the number of battle scars you’re collecting you will never catch the flashes of rainbows in between the showers and storms…okay…sorry…

That is way too poetic or Pollyanna for an article about Foreclosure; but I have to ask: What determines which one of us will make it through? The government doesn’t have a profile on that one!

Think Like Socrates:

Here are some of his thoughts that might help you get through:

• “Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty”

• “Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.”
• “If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.”

Finding Contentment  is a matter of attitude and choice. Which team do you want to play for; Darwin’s or Chicken Little’s? Your spirit, your strength, what makes you rise every morning when it would be so easy to stay in bed, that human tenacity to walk the walk and repeat the words of Clint Eastwood,  (And say it with gusto, would ya please! No sissy’s can repeat Clint’s line!)

“Go Ahead Make My Day.”

That cowboy attitude made this country great!

It’s what we need to do today. The spirit and strong will to shout proudly, not giving a damn to the Gladys Cravitz talking about us on the soccer field; It could have been her that lost her house, but cards were unfairly dealt to us. It’s not our fault; no place to feel any shame so shout like a soldier:“I will get through this. Damn the fool who tries to stop me!”

That is what our ancestors had to do over and over again.

Adaptability to change will determine who makes it through this tough period, just like it did for the early settler or riders on the Chuck Wagon Train.

Cobb Hill;

Turned out to be more than a ride down memory lane:

What got me on this tangent???

Last weekend I went for a drive with my pal and we ended up taking a quick historical tour of his ancestors who first settled on Cape Cod. After his dad died, his brother had his genealogy traced and the findings were fascinating. My friend is directly related to one of the Pilgrims, who traveled on the Mayflower. More impressive; he has ancestors who were responsible for settling sections of the Cape.

We drove along one of the oldest roads in MA called 6A that eventually led us to Brewster, one of the beautiful historical Cape towns. Cape. Cobb Hill leads to an old white preserved church, built more than 400 years ago. My friend’s ancestor was the first Deacon and founder for the town.

Cobb Hill was sprinkled with tombstones belonging to Cobbs and other names of early settlers. The history was incredible and standing next to my buddy,Cobb, I looked at the hill sprinkled with his ancestors and thought to myself; life couldn’t have been so different for those Cobbs. Right?

Maybe we are taller, more savvy with technology,  but as far as the human spirit goes; we haven’t changed. The graves were so old, and yet the words on many were still legible. Looking out at Cobb Hill I knew the truth; a fact that is basic in evolution.

What was my revelation?

What came out of my mouth wasn’t anything profound but it was significant to me. I told my pal Cobb, as I stared at the hill belonging to hundreds of his late relatives,

“Funny isn’t it….Doesn’t matter who you are….where you were born or when you lived…We all end up in the same place…”

He laughed at my comment, but think about it. Rich or poor, famous or invisible, life will take you to the same bus stop where you board the up or down elevator, right?

It’s how we travel the road that makes us different.

We are all the same:

Forget what country you’re from, what your race, religion or political view is, we all walk the same road, but deal with different twists and turns along the way that trip us, make us fall, or get us lost on a dead end street. Our ability to adapt is what separates how happy we are on the journey or if we allow  our baggage to weigh us down.

Think About Cobb Hill:

When you stand looking at a hill of stones, can you tell which Cobb had more sheep in his field or cabbage growing in his garden? Which Cobb had a bigger dowry for his daughter or could cash her in for the fattest brown cow?

Nope. We end up the same. Under a tomb, or ashes in an urn; nobody is richer or poorer. We just sprinkle the hills or the ocean floor and the monetary stuff just doesn’t matter in the end, does it?

If I think in what I call the “Divine Perspective”, you know: the idea that you don’t take it with you when you go, then I find losing “stuff” like my house or money; all this I can let go, even the job loss; it makes it more bearable for me. I can free myself from crippling anger and focus on what I need to do to get back in the road race again. I’m sure my ancestors from Italy or Ireland had been dealt hard knocks and survived . Why should I choose to be any different, but it is a choice.

I will survive because I’m determined to adapt to the changes and focus on what is ahead, not what I’m leaving behind.

What’s my point?

This is a tough period for Americans. But I hope if you are someone who is unlucky like me, facing foreclosure due to job loss, with no real job in sight, you will take heart and keep trudging the road called life and somehow put a skip in your step (even if it’s forced at first, with time, it will become natural and will make the traveling more pleasant).

Besides last weekend’s ride; what got me to write this long post, on Easter Sunday?

Springtime, Easter; both are beginnings. Losing a life you knew and starting over can be seen like a new beginning and it doesn’t have to have a negative connotation.

My friend Don Shapiro is writing a book called “A Fork in the Road.” And it’s about the choices we all are forced to make as we travel on the road leading us to the same bus stop. He just emailed me and his message inspired me to tap out 1718 words so far on my lap top. (Too long for any blog, but hopefully you’ll forgive me!)

I want to share his wisdom with you here.

If you are an angry American, post it on your fridge and read it every day until you begin to believe it.

Here is Don’s  message:

“Time remains the unknown. No matter what path we take, what goals we set, we have no control over the time it takes to reach a better place. Just know that it is there waiting for you.”

We’re all gypsies , or the Cobbs on the Hill, traveling a transient, ever changing twisting road, called life. But like the gypsy who adapts to the new city, we need to believe that good fortune will one day find us again.  The economic storm like every storm in history will pass. It’s our ability to adapt and think like Socrates that will make the waiting less painful.

Don’t allow anger to prevent you from adapting to a world that is changing and out of your control. Bend with the wind and hold on tight to your tarot cards.

Who knows? Maybe some day, years from now, there will be a hill named after you, where your descendants will travel to find you, only to whisper in the spring breeze: “Thank you.”

“The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions.”

Lyrics to Change

Taylor Swift:

And it’s a sad picture, the final blow hits you

Somebody else gets what you wanted again

You know it’s all the same, another time and place

Repeating history and you’re getting sick of it

But I believe in whatever you do

And I’ll do anything to see it through

Because these things will change, can you feel it now?

These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down

It’s a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win

We’ll sing hallelujah!

We’ll sing hallelujah! Oh

So we’ve been outnumbered, raided and now cornered

It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair

We’re getting stronger now from things they never found

They might be bigger but we’re faster and never scared

You can walk away and say we don’t need this

But there’s something in your eyes says we can beat this

‘Cause these things will change, can you feel it now?

These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down

It’s a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win

We’ll sing hallelujah!

We’ll sing hallelujah! Oh

Tonight we standed on our knees

To fight for what we worked for all these years

And the battle was long, it’s the fight of our lives

Will we stand up champions tonight?

It was the night things changed, can you see it now?

These walls that they put up to hold us back fell down

It’s a revolution, throw your hands up, ’cause we never gave in

We’ll sing hallelujah!

We sang hallelujah!

Hallelujah!

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