That America We Knew and Loved? It's Still Here

It's kind of sad how many people find themselves asking "where did the America I knew and loved go to?"    And the reason so many are asking that is because what is put before our eyes every day: A nation without any but the most superficial values. -An America supposedly full of selfishness and small thinking. Of cheap laughter and an even cheaper culture. Of broken families and broken lives. And especially (it seems to me) a lack of real leadership. There is no one (we are repeatedly told) that we can trust.

But here is what I have realized -- I, and I know, many, many others -- some who realized this far more quickly than I did -- that the America we loved still exists.  Not just here and there -- mere smatterings -- holdouts -- but virtually everywhere.

People with values. People with depth. People that are quietly going about their lives in a way that reveals that the 'old' America is far from dead.  It is living. It is breathing. It is being passed along.

The reason we may not quickly or easily see this is because we have been taught to not look with our own eyes, but through the eyes of others.  The coastal media. The big mouths on TV and, yes, on the Internet.

And such people -- this is worth noting! -- rarely even pretend to be looking at the nation about us. Instead they spend their days quoting one-another.

If you listen to "news" or read opinion pages take note of this: How much time and space is being used by the same few people quoting and arguing with each other. As if their voices, and only their voices, mattered.

That is why some who actually think and speak for themselves talk and write about there being an "echo chamber."  It's almost like there is just one voice speaking. On and on and on. Endlessly. "He said he said that he said..."

Then take note how different the country they see is from the one that you and I see with our own eyes. Not just occasionally, but each and every day.

If you'll allow the semi-jest... how many little boys do you see that want to wear a dress?  ANY?

How many people that you know want to do any of the things that those voices repeatedly tell us that everyone is wanting to do?

I'll bet in many cases the answer is NONE.

On the other hand, how many people do you see with your own eyes that have real, "traditional" values about the goodness of hard work? That value accomplishment? That care for their families? That care about other people? -Yes, all other people, without the supposed distrusts and divisions and narrow-minded hate that those loud voices tell us are common amongst us?

America lives. It lives in us.

America has a future.  Because of us -- and the many, many millions more just like us in the ways that really matter.

We're not gone.  We're here.

They can't see us because they do not want to see us. Nor do they want us to see ourselves. -For who we are. For what we believe in.

And frankly that is exactly what has those loud few so frightened. US. You and me. And that is what makes them so desirous of making us turn inward so that we will not see one-another. And realize our power.

America is still here.
They can only kill it if we let them.

(And again frankly, I think that it is for them too late.)

Enough of us know.
Enough of us see.
Enough of us care about all this and are speaking out.

Welcome back America!  Yes, even if in fact you never really went away.

Posted to American Thinker
Aug 12, 2017

Staying Put

For many years it was a growing 'tradition' for older people whose family had grown and moved away to, upon retirement, do the same themselves. To give up what had been their home for many years -- the place, often, where they had raised their families -- and to move elsewhere -- often to a "retirement community."  Frankly I was surprised to read that that trend seemed to be reversing. -That many older people are now choosing, instead, to stay put.

Bloomberg News posted an article whose title captured the change, and its effect on society: "Baby Boomers Who Refuse to Sell Are Dominating the Housing Market." From the point of view of younger people this change was hardly a positive one.  Housing for young families in some areas is getting increasingly short. Indeed the article focused on one younger man who has of late been spending his free time canvasing entire neighborhoods in search of somebody -- anybody! -- who is willing to sell. That so he can have a home to call his own. A foundation on which to build his future life.

Responses to his appeal have been vigorous and, in every case so far, negative.

Said one older house owner "“I wouldn’t sell even if you gave me $2 million — this is my retirement. If you gave me a bag of money, I wouldn’t sell.”

The reason, given by another such older home owner, was stark and clear. Said he: “This neighborhood still has the soul of the past. Everybody I know — people older than me — wouldn’t move from here for nothing unless they couldn’t afford it no more.”

I don't know that I'd personally say "no" to two million dollars, if offered that for my home and property, but the reasoning those two individuals expressed -- and those of several others mentioned in the article -- rang true to me.  I, as apparently have they, thought it through. I've evaluated a wide range of options. And decided to stay put.

Indeed my wife Jan and I did this together. With much care and focused purpose.  And, be it for similar reasons as others of our generation, or, perhaps, just our own, we have decided to stay.

The "whys" of this are many.  Here, from our personal perspective, are a few of them:

We are where we wish to be.

In the end that is the most salient reason.  Jan and my life together has not largely been an "oh, whatever..." affair.  We've from the start had goals and aspirations -- goals and aspirations we have lived for. Focused upon. Striven for. Sacrificed to reach.  Thus our living where we live did not come about by mere happenstance.  It is a location -- a home -- a community -- of our choosing. One based on what we are as people. -Upon our own shared, but also individual, needs.

Quietude, privacy and peace are to us essential elements of a happy and contented life. Being able to be ourselves, with little need to answer to others -- and to remain unaffected by other's equally genuine and equally personal choices and preferences.

In a sense this is not too different from the comment of one of the elderly home owners quoted above when they spoke of their neighborhood still having the "soul of the past." In their case there seemed to be an ethnic community aspect.  But underneath the specifics of what they personally valued their desire was not unlike our own: To live in a place where they/we feel comfortable.  Where one's own likes and dislikes -- and personal level of comfort -- remained paramount.

For Jan and I that "community" is in a certain sense a community of two.  But it is still a community -- one with deeply held values. -Values that in many respects differ from the greater world around us.

Another reason for staying put -- how mundane! -- is simple dollars and sense.

Yes, "sense."  Evaluated, not by commonly accepted "truths" such as "living is less expensive elsewhere," but a personal evaluation of where we'd be financially and otherwise if we should up and move.

We have for many years invested everything, or pretty close to everything, in our home and property.  That with the goal of making it exactly what we wished it to be.  And the fact is that much of that investment is non-transferable.

The large, gorgeous, porch. Rebuilt from the ground up at great cost. The home's Great Room with its large fireplace -- and room aplenty for Jan's baby grand piano, a billiard table and a bar. My personal sanctum -- a library loft with comfortable leather seating surrounded by my books and personal mementos. The home theater -- carefully designed, styled, and created with hours and hours of work -- and providing us the real theater experience in sound and picture, but without the sticky floors and endless whispering that makes the commercial movie house often less than a complete joy no matter how good "the picture."

And beauty.  Acres of it. Diverse and ever changing beauty. -There to be enjoyed outside, or through any of the house's many windows -- including the virtual glass wall that allows us to look out onto a small meadow full of life when first opening our eyes on each new day.

Then there's the larger "neighborhood."  A true "art town."  Not "arty" in the superficial, trendy, Hollywood sense, but a place of real, stable and mature creativity.  One built up many years ago on the three pillars of the MacDowell Colony, the Mariarden and the Laughton Camp/Out-Door Players -- the later of which property and main house is now what we call "home."

Could any of above be found anew?  And if so, at what cost? In money, yes, but even more in time, attention and expended energy?

Take the supposed (and in some ways real) "lower cost of living" in other areas -- and then add into the equation the cost of moving. -Of paying a real estate agent's seller's fees. Of again setting up a home, if not from scratch, then as close to that as neccasary to make the fittings "right" for the place. A new place. Likely a very different sort of place.

Add to that that such "lower cost of living" most often comes with a different price:  A less desirable location. One without such things as "the arts." One without a long standing (and still existent) culture of its own. A barren field without strong, tall, trees -- if not literally, than figuratively.

So for all these reason we are staying put.  As are, it seems, many others of our generation.

"Selfish"?  Perhaps.  But in the end isn't all life so?  Grasping for the sun. With the deep roots needed to grab up all the water needed to live and to thrive.

So, yes, we are staying put. For as long as possible. Be it as now, on our own, or later, if needed, perhaps with a little loving help.

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