Lyrics of Life

Day by Day is a song title, a pop tune that lilts its way into the mind and heart of listeners. Other song titles pop to mind as well. Later those tunes and lyrics emerge in my thinking, you know, the idle sort of thinking we all engage in from time to time. While sitting at a railroad crossing waiting for the train to clear the crossing, or when waiting a long time at a busy commuter intersection, these themes come to mind.

Even later in the day we find ourselves thinking on the words, perhaps not the original intent of the artist who brought them to us, but just the same, food for thought.

Mulling over random ideas and words is more than a pastime. It is like idle work that often yields results. Sometimes we think upon topics that are very complex and difficult to explain to others. As an explainer I will use any tool to help express myself so others can understand the point of view. Pop tunes and song lyrics are handy for that!

So, day by day we live out our lives. One moment at a time and one major task or project at a time. Sometimes these are crises, and the drama for us is quite real. Are we aware this is happening ‘day by day’? Or are these things taken for granted as we struggle and sweat the details?  I think the latter. Maybe months later – or even years – we think back on these matters quite by accident. And the meaning then comes home full force. Aha! Yes, another one of those Aha moments!

Two days ago I posted my Impeach Trump message on my blog. I am very serious about this posting. I think trump is very dangerous to himself, us, the nation and the world community. I get the point that maybe trump's presidency is a rude awakening and shock to the system that might provide some clarity and guidance moving on into the future. But I shudder at the sloppiness and irreverent disregard he has for history, protocol and balanced views.

There is an orderly process to follow. Just ask Kissinger and a dozen or more Secretaries of State. They crafted their messages very carefully. They built relationships intently so we could forge ahead with history with certainty and care. That does not describe what’s happening in Washington DC at this very moment.

No; trump is outside of every box, square, process or protocol that ever existed in White House practices. His disregard seems total; it is this aspect of his behavior that informs me he is out of control and a clear and present danger to our nation and global community.

Look, it seems the crisis posed by North Korea has been abetted and supported by both Iran and Russia. Do I have proof of this? No; but the CIA, and other intelligence agencies do. Iran has been feeding military secrets to North Korea so the latter can appear to gain nuclear capabilities in threatening the US. Iran wouldn’t dare do this on her own, but through North Korea, you bet. Looking passively in the other direction is Russia. Putin foments trouble all the time. It is his nature and role to do. Russia is not strong enough to wage a World War III; but if it upsets the balance enough throughout the globe he will have partners in his nonsensical ‘plan’. And then watch out!

I don’t have an answer to North Korea other than building a global peace force that strips North Korea of all of its military capability. After that we all go in to rebuild their nation’s ability to support a quality of life for its people.

A peaceful Korean Peninsula should be our goal. The ‘war’ has been quieted for many decades (1953?) and peace has been present in name only. It is time to make it real. This cannot happen without removing the tools of war and actually acting like caring human beings to the North Korean people.

Now, that’s what I think about North Korea’s threat to the world. How we get Russia, Iran, and the very troubled middle eastern nations to cooperate and collaborate on a peace plan is the larger issue we all need to be working on.

Obviously the UN could be of great assistance here, but it has burned up its credibility value through many years of dumb agreements, pacts and protocols. Talk about resetting or rebooting an organization!  The UN should be doing this right now if it is going to play any meaningful role in reaching and maintaining peace on a global basis.

Day by Day, indeed. For patient people this is a snap. For the rest of us, it is excruciatingly painful. Now where’s a lyric that would salve this open sore?

May 18, 2017