Making America Great – Part 2

Yesterday’s post was my macro treatment of making America great again. Those are policies, programs and mindsets that need to be embedded in our national psyche if we are to improve upon the situation we now face. But there is a micro treatment as well and today’s post focuses on that.

What can I do – what can you do, what can we do – to make America great?

First, I think America is already great. We’ve lost some luster and some panache. But that is temporary and situational, maybe even cyclical. At any rate ‘things’ are not terrific and they could be. So here’s what I think can be done. By each of us. It is the choice of each person. You can do these things or not, but then you can’t complain about national results if you didn’t lend your hand in making good things happen.

1. Be inventive. If something breaks, fix it yourself. If you can’t, adapt use around the broken item and determine if you even need it anymore. If not, dispose of it and streamline your surroundings.
2. Be inventive if you have a need but no visible means to fulfill the need. Think of ways to fill the need in other ways. A good cook/chef works around the ingredients available. It is not a make or break situation but rather a moment to create new solutions. I call this inventive.
3. Be inventive via substitution. If you have a need and what you would normally use to fill the need is unavailable, find something else to fill the need. Unlike cooking, we are not talking about substitute ingredients, but rather altered responses to the need. So, instead of asking someone for information, look it up yourself. Learn to ask questions that not only provide answers to your original question, but ask questions that round out your understanding of the field from which your question and answer originally targeted. You will be amazed at what you learn. Context is important to all things. Relish the complexity and nuance of how surroundings affect and shape information and facts. There is much to be learned and appreciated from this search for information and understanding.
4. Invest yourself in everything. Either seek self reliance in the first place, or determine to live the solution from start to finish. Reduce dependence on others. Do things for yourself. You will value and appreciate so much. And you will reduce expectations from not just others, but from the ‘world’ at large. The world is not there for you. You are here to be a part of it, not a leech to suck life out of the global community.
5. Appreciate more of life’s gifts. Music (the emotional responses to the music, your emotional reach to hear more). Arts (the visual delight of what the artist is saying to you and all other viewers; the responses within you to the artist’s message). Math (the logic and orderliness of the universe). Science (the logic and connectedness of all things in the universe to one another and what it informs us about life). Earth (our surroundings – air, temperature, weather conditions, dampness, dryness, blue skies, green plant life, enormous tree specimens and their leaves or needles; mountains, lakes, rivers, hills, oceans). Time (the resource in which and with which we know the present and search for the future). Relationships (both family and friends and what they mean to us; what they teach us of ourselves). Health (the wellness of our bodies and spirit and how this supports and enriches our appreciation of self and life).
6. Intellect, the workings of it. Plato, Aristotle and Archimedes thought their way through life. Like the great thinkers throughout all of history, they brought order and understanding to their lives. They wrote about such things and shared their knowledge with the ages so you and I can know what they knew. Observe life and understand why things happen and how we can positively affect those happenings. Also understand how we can negatively affect those happenings so we can avoid doing that. The mind is with us always but we do not always attend it. I’m suggesting that we do attend it with vigor and constancy. We will be amazed at how this will change lives – ours and others.
7. Work hard and get involved. Don’t let George do it, Harry or Alice either! You do it. Mow that lawn. Wash that car. Clean the windows. Learn to cook for yourself. Write a poem. Write a book. Read a book. Listen to music. Involve yourself in your life. Do not be a spectator.
8. Do not blame others. Own your life and leave others be until you are strong enough to do for yourself. Blaming others for your problems does nothing to solve your problems. Those are still with you to live with and survive. Your life is yours; it does not belong to others,
9. Help others as best you can.  You can offer to help or actually pitch in and help. Do what you can to ease the pain and suffering of others near and dear to you. Do not own their lives. That is for them to do. But we all need help from time to time. Living in community teaches us that. Our dues for communal life are to help and pitch in from time to time. We all gain from this cooperation and collaboration. We share the burdens and benefits together.
10. Love as much as you can.  Others and self are the aim of this love. You generally cannot love others well if you don’t at first love yourself. This is a hard lesson to learn. It smacks of egotism but it isn’t. We must first value our own life before we can be of any use to others. And then we gain from those relationships in order to give more. 

The next time you fall for the cheap line that America isn’t great, or your employer isn’t great, or whatever, think of what you didn’t do for the good of others. Include yourself in that as well. What can I do to make life better for myself and then for others? Have I done enough. Or am I living off the fruit of the land and other people without making my contribution to the whole?

America is great. It can be more. But it begins with each of us.

March 31, 2016