Down, but not out... [View all]

[babylonsister]

https://www.facebook.com/craig.hardegree
Cree Hardegree
53 m ·

Down, but not out;
Denied, but not discouraged;
Blown about, but still on course.
It was necessary.
We are the scribes for the scrolls of the future; the cloud of witnesses that beheld the truth of which we are now the stewards.
December 7;
9/11;
January Six.
Axis Fascists; Islamic Radicals; Evangelical Terrorists.
This happens when society loses its shared sense of the collective.
When we drift into tribes, guided only by an unquenchable quest for the power to ensure survival in a habitat of limited resources where presence for me means absence for you.
The dynamic has changed. Full paradigms have shifted.
Religious conservatives are now cop killers; sowers of destruction; authors of confusion; tellers of lies; lovers of the dark, because their ways are evil.
We did all we could do.
No regrets; no second-guessing.
It's a lesson we really need to learn.
It can be stated many ways, but I like the way my President Obama always said it:
"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the achievable."
It’s the opposite of the soul-killing self-destructive philosophy that so many now live by: "all or nothing; 100% pure or fuck it."
Back in the primaries it manifested in the hunt for the perfect candidate:
“She said this, she’s dead to me now;”
“Said that about him; I’ll never vote for her again for anything.”
Keeps us from building bridges:
“He may as well be a Republican, let’s just primary him.”
And, today:
“If it’s not a sure win, then let’s just do nothing;”
Exasperatingly:
“Wait! If we’d just done that one more thing, we would have won; this whole thing’s a waste now; they ruined everything.”
Jaded and cynical:
“Don’t be impressed with Romney; he’s still…….”
“She only voted with us because she’s……”
Soul-killing.
Self-defeating.
All or nothing.
Unable to appreciate the good, that can exist along with the bad.
If it’s not 100% perfect, fuck it, I’ll just lose.
We did all we could do.
Feel good about it.
Celebrate it.
Don’t throw out 10% help because you didn’t get 90%. What were you expecting? We KNOW they aren’t in our camp; recognizing their contribution doesn’t mean we are fooled by them; doesn’t endorse anything else about them — turn down the tribalism just a notch.
Don’t throw out a historical achievement with the most cross-party votes in history, just because you didn’t get more.
Don’t let “the perfect” be the enemy of “the achievable.”
It kills the soul when nothing is ever good enough; when nothing can ever be celebrated; when achievements less than a crushing-win are bad-mouthed and second-guessed and loaded-up with cynical alternate motivations.
The steam-discs are dancing.
Whistling.
Turning in the light.
They won’t cook a goose or fry an ass, but they’ll keep the apples off the ceiling.
You’ll never get that if you missed my pressure cooker post last night.
But right on cue today, when the vote went for acquittal, the steam-thingamajigs began whistling and dancing.
Indulge in it if it helps you, but it’s nothing more than the self-soothing purr of a kitten.
We have work to do.
Budgets to pass, checks to write, arms to stick, promises to keep.
We stopped to do what we had to do.
We did the best we could do.
Appreciate it.
And move.