The new schedule has begun.\u00a0 Yesterday I spent the morning on fiction writing.\u00a0 That was fun.\u00a0 After that I wrote my post.\u00a0 Today I headed off to the office for my first normal workday.\u00a0 That was interesting.<\/p>\n
I am under the weather.\u00a0 Camera Girl and by extension Princess Sack of Potatoes gifted me some kind of cold-flu-virus-thingamajig involving sinuses, nose and throat suffering but mercifully no lung torture.\u00a0 I\u2019m doped up on over-the-counter marvelous miracle drugs that actually seem to abate most of the misery.\u00a0 But I\u2019m still only firing on seven cylinders which means this post may be a little off.<\/p>\n
But all-in-all I\u2019m feeling relatively upbeat about my new perspective on US politics.\u00a0 I no longer have to agonize over whether Herschel Walker or Dr. Oz is going to squirm through the Democrat ballot harvesting dragnet.\u00a0 It\u2019s no longer my problem anymore.\u00a0 I live in a country that has a single-party political system and it isn\u2019t a party that\u2019s going to favor me or my family.\u00a0 All I have to worry about is whether I\u2019m doing everything I can to produce a space where people like me can flourish.<\/p>\n
And since I\u2019ve just started this phase of my life, I\u2019m cutting myself some slack.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to solve all the problems of living in New England overnight.\u00a0 But what I must do is begin thinking in this new way and continuously test and improve my assumptions about what can be done and what can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
So, for instance, my town is one of the few towns in my state that is measurably Republican in voting record.\u00a0 So, we can elect Republican selectmen and school board members and a Republican state representative and state senator.\u00a0 But we can\u2019t elect a Republican US representative or senator.\u00a0 So, that tells me that we can have quite a bit of influence in the local laws that are written and a little influence on state laws but basically no impact at the national level.<\/p>\n
So that should be my basis for evaluating the future.\u00a0 The state and federal government are the main threats to me.\u00a0 They can increase my taxes, curtail my freedoms and poison the minds of my children and grandchildren with warped lies and dangerous fantasies about life.\u00a0 Each of these threats require an evaluation to decide what preventative actions can be taken to protect against these problems.\u00a0 And these actions have to be evaluated to see if there is a net positive or negative from having to implement them.<\/p>\n
For instance, moving to a different state or a different country might protect me from losing certain freedoms or eliminate indoctrination of my children.\u00a0 But what other things go along with that?\u00a0 Would I have to sacrifice economic opportunities.\u00a0 Or would I be forced to become a stranger in a strange land, someone who would always be thought of as an outsider?<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s why I\u2019m going to cut myself a lot of slack.\u00a0 Big changes like emigrating are not something you do lightly or quickly.\u00a0 For now, I\u2019ll concentrate on the small things like participating in local government.\u00a0 And since I\u2019ve made that move, I\u2019m patting myself on the back and awarding myself all kinds of bonus points and participation trophies.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s why I\u2019m feeling so upbeat amid the wreckage and ruin of the mid-terms.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to walk in the footsteps of the social justice types but I will quote one of their favorite messages, the Serenity Prayer, \u201cGod, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to do what I can and stop stressing about things that just don\u2019t seem to be happening.<\/p>\n
If someone appears who can get things done, I\u2019ll support him.\u00a0 If my small efforts put me into a position to accomplish some change on my own, I\u2019ll do it.\u00a0 And if all else fails I\u2019ll keep my eyes open to know when and where to jump to avoid disaster.\u00a0 That\u2019s as much as I can think of.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I\u2019ll write about when I\u2019m not writing stories or taking photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The new schedule has begun.\u00a0 Yesterday I spent the morning on fiction writing.\u00a0 That was fun.\u00a0 After that I wrote my post.\u00a0 Today I headed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,1263],"tags":[3341,216,3598],"class_list":["post-21155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-dunwich","tag-photog","tag-taking-control-of-your-life"],"yoast_head":"\n