Politics, Climate Change, Global Warming, Blah…Blah…Blah

When I can get my wife to write a column, she invariably chooses to write about children, finding lost jewelry, a Christmas trip to visit family, and that sort of thing. That is what she enjoys, and based on comments we have received, readers enjoy it too. My wife has suggested that I “lighten up a bit” with my columns. However, I get my pleasure writing about the nuts-and-bolts of life in our county and beyond. I take pleasure in such challenges and in interacting with people to find solutions. 
As I see it, the nuts-and-bolts issues are very interesting things of life; they present a challenge to be confronted, to be figured out, and ultimately to be subdued; something to be able to put behind us, so we can go on to the next task. At times, part of me wants to run from the heavy stuff, but there is real satisfaction in taking on a difficult task and seeing it through.
On that point, decades ago, I was speaking to Rose Bliss, the hostess of Ed Zaberer’s Restaurant. She told me that the parties she least enjoyed undertaking for people were retirement celebrations, because, in her experience, too many people did not handle their retirement well. They had looked forward to the day that they could get that weight off their shoulders, but then learned that it played an important role in their satisfaction with life. Upon retirement, their reason for getting up in the morning was taken away from them. In fact, challenges are the stuff of life, and whether or not we recognize it, conquering our trials can make life good.
Currently, our nation is engaged in political battles which hang over our spirits like heavy clouds. Is it possible to see such weighty topics as a challenge, as something to test our skills? My friend, Ralph Johnson, approaches problems this way. In his mind, he doesn’t have problems; he only has “Things.” That is how he keeps his equanimity and his joy, and all of you who know him know what I mean.
I have come to believe that the way we look at life is all-important. If we expect it to be only a bed of roses, every rain cloud dampens our spirits. As I often assert in my pieces, most of the people in the world would love to have the lives we live here in Cape May County, including all the challenges. We are the blessed of the blessed. A positive view of life’s tests, however, is essential to enjoy the blessing.
So the next time a TV commentator rails about the political impasse, or the warming globe that is going to flood the world, let’s step back and calmly say to ourselves, that is just a “Thing” to be solved; now let’s work on a solution.