As I mentioned the other day, it seems I have had three main themes in recent years, best summarized as: Fanning the creative impulse in all of us, celebrating freedom in the face of tyranny’s encroachment, and encouraging optimism about the future.
It’s probably because it’s another year of “the most important election in our lifetimes,” but maintaining that optimism feels harder lately. Sheesh, gasoline prices that have never been this high, the federal government’s inflation-kindling decision to print about $5 trillion out of thin air to “stimulate the economy,” and the daily assaults on basic freedom have combined to make our present reality very dreary indeed.
We, perhaps foolishly, turn on the TV news in the morning to find that the dreariness continues, until we remember that news items become news items because they are aberrations. Almost every human interaction is an example of peaceful cooperation, from feeding the kids and buying groceries to driving to work and swimming in the ocean. The incidents we see in the news are reports about breakdowns in the peace. Drivers safely reaching their destinations and conflicts resolved without shooting do not make the news.
It’s easy to get hung up on the aberrations because so many people make a living by seeking them out and magnifying them for all to see. I’m here to remind you that almost every encounter we have begins and ends in peace. You can focus on the death, destruction and hate, but I’m here to tell you that the overwhelming majority of what you’ll find is about life, construction and love in this world.