The Weakest Link

"In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest." ~ Thomas Reid

I am sure that everyone has heard the saying "it takes a village to raise a child". That is a true statement - with two young children I have been blessed to know that first hand. My mother, aunt, sisters, father and others have taken a part in the rearing of my children. As I was thinking about it today, that saying can be applied to our country as well.

Politically speaking I consider myself a fairly liberal Democrat.  I am totally unapologetic about that BUT  I put it out there so that you can get all of your groans out of the way now. Here is my thinking - it is going to take more than just our political leaders to put this country back on the right track. Some of us put too much trust that President Obama would make the changes that we need and that we would be an entirely different country at the end of his term (s). I won't get off topic with my ideas on that but I will say this, you need to check out my post "He Ain't No Black Jesus" to see what I think about it. :)

I don't think any one political party or leader has a clue how to fix this country nor do I believe that any party is better than the other. They are all politicians in sheep's clothing. So it is going to take this village to raise itself. My friends and I talk about political issues all the time and do what intellectuals do best - we intellectualize! But it is time to move past that and get to the things that are going to take care of ourselves. We need to contact our political leaders and tell them our ideas AND we need to get out in our communities and identify the needs and meet them. When we start doing that - the impact will be phenomenal.

We need to look at ourselves as foster children whose parents have taken a break from us and thrown us in to this system.  We need to look out for each other in order to make it through this. We have to do what we as a country have always done best - take care of each other.  We have to support our community organizations that collect food and clothing for the community; create money pools for friends and family in need; do job trades for services; open our doors to people who need a place to stay.  In general, we need to be creative about helping each other and filling our needs. Because when it comes down to it, we are really only as strong as our weakest link.  It's time to get to work and raise this village.

Reality Check

I have realized something about myself and it is true about every aspect of my life - I can see things for their potential instead of what the reality is.  It is the potential that I hold on to, believe in, hope for and it is that potential that typically leads me to a huge reality check.  I would never describe myself as an idealistic person, but it is the ideal that I see and hold on to. And it can be frustrating.

Well, today is a new day. And the GI Joe cartoon I used to watch would say at the end of every show that "knowing is half the battle". Now that I know, I can take off my rose colored glasses and start looking at things for what they are. The only problem is I feel like I would lose some of my optimism, that piece of me that makes me a fighter and makes me want to see past the surface in everything.  Maybe the issue is that I need to figure out what is worth fighting for and what deserves my optimism. One day at a time...