Gossamer Bridge

There are folks that I like to imagine drifting around us, who've gone on, the giants on whose shoulders we stand and I think about what they've said, the visions that powered them...

I've been ill, and the wretched boredom of chronic pain circles like shadows. I couldn't read, and still have trouble with too much computer time. So, I'm left to my own thoughts: horrors!:-)

Seriously, the last thing I want to have to do is occupy my own mind without a book or a blog...

But, when forced, as life will, to do something I really don't want to do, I found in it a kind of...not peace, exactly. Just a sense that there are large perspectives to this fight we have, to get to the bottom of what ails America and effect a lasting cure...

In that context, I was thinking about this quote:

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Thomas Jefferson to Maryland Republicans, 1809

The care of human life and happiness. Including mine, and not excluding yours, or Wally around the way. I'm very pragmatic about this, and here's why: I remember giving seats to older/infirm people on buses and trains while I was growing up in Queens, not only because I was well-raised, but also because, if my Mom was ever in need of a seat, I trusted that someone would do her the same courtesy.

So, the pragmatic reason to care for others is not from even revolution theology (at least not consciously). It's more like a tantalizing glimpse that I have been lucky to see in my life, of worlds where just about everyone, including the government, puts that care first. Imagine that!

Putting care first. That means caring for myself as well as caring for you.

So, then I think: Okay, what would it look like if we had a good government, whose major goal was to put human life and happiness first - all of it, even the ill, imprisoned, young, old and 'Other' versions? Does it only look like a reverse of the horrors of the past 30 years of creeping right-wing thought - their brand...and ours? I know this is naive, but I wonder if that's enough to move people forward...

I often say that I'm not at all wonky: I'm a really bad debater and have no interest in learning to be a good one, because I think, if I have potential to move people towards progress at all, it's in vision questions, it's in humor, and coming from a place where those gossamer threads are...bridges, not chains, as conservatives seem to feel/fear...

That which connects us is made up of bridges to treasure, not chains to deplore or ignore.

So, I wonder, what would Jefferson's 'good government' look like, translated to now? What easy to understand, realistic vision could ignite the imagination of people who don't have a lot of time or attention to invest in political thinking, but who know that something feels really wrong in America?...

*ps: this is not at all about Presidential candidates and what they say - at least not for me. It's more a question of how I/we can talk with people about the good that's in our future, that it's reachable on a day-to-day, personal level...

•  Care of Human Life is a great goal.

  But their is a nasty side to people called greed and power that stand between obtaining that goal. We never invision ourselves as old and infirm, or as hurt and in pain, when we are younger. Youth always believes that the future is theirs. By the time you are older or have an accident that leaves you in pain, the greed and power are already firmly established. Maybe we need more humanity in the early school grades.  We are an imperfect people.

  by Owllwoman on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 05:44:07 AM PDT

  •  While many may never have the grace

    or perceive the need, the ability to "walk a  mile in someone's moccasins" can change how we view and deal with one another on a personal basis.
    At least, that's what I learned from some of the younger, "hipper" nuns back in grade school.

    by Lisa Lockwood on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 05:56:11 AM PDT

    •  grace

      is such a great part of the impetus for this behavior, isn't it?

      When Steve Gilliard was ill, in those long painful months, I saw such grace and strength, even from the trolls, the people who disagreed with him vehemently, but who stayed with the community out of fear for him, and, dare I say, love for him (and respect)...

      I wonder what vision, or idea, can help people change their perspective in that way...something like  "Ask not what your country can do for you...", but for these times...

      by Terri on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 06:11:45 AM PDT

  •  teaching humanity early...

    I certainly believe that this is true: I guess what I'm hoping for is that the power of a clear vision will help to seal, or perhaps heal, the imperfection...

    by Terri on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 06:07:33 AM PDT

    •  Early

      is the best but I find that kids come to school pretty firmly rooted in greed, for lack of a better word.  Now, some of that is attributable to age: kids are narcissistic by nature.  Still, if they have never been expected to defer to another human being or to share anything, they are scarred before we get them.  They come from homes where if they don't speak up and fight for everything, they get nothing.  

      I don't know how we got here but there must be some way to teach/encourage parents and caretakers to instill some humanity in kids while they are young.  I hate it when I only have questions instead of answers........

      BTW  I teach in a Catholic school so I do have the advantage of asking them, "Is that how you treat God's child?" It doesn't always work, but it certainly gets their attention!

      by luckylizard on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 06:59:58 AM PDT

•  on the other hand

  the example of voluntarily giving up your seat on a bus or subway is exactly the current Republican ideal -- that the "care of human life and happiness" rests with our neighbors and fellow men and women, not with government.

  in contrast, on the San Francisco bus lines (and maybe on NY buses too?  not on subways though) there are seats at the front designated by law for elderly and disabled.  if you're sitting there, and someone needs the seat more than you, you must by law give it to them.

  that's the difference between modern Republicanism and Jeffersonian Republicanism/modern Democratism(?) in a nutshell:  whether you trust the people to take care of each other, or think the people are not going to do that themselves and the purpose of government is to take care of them so they don't have to take care of each other.

  Obviously, I'm of the second school.

  by emptypockets on Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 07:03:03 AM PDT