What is important

Well you guys are correct. The goodness of life lies in the details, especially in the friends and family.

But, there is also the importance of pushing for your beliefs and causes, and that is what I will be doing over the next few weeks.
I feel that this country is at a very crucial, historic and vital crossroads. This election could be more important that any election since 1860. The two candidates hold very different views of how our government should work, what our country's role in the world should be, and what the basic values of this country will be.

While I do not feel that Mr. Obama is the great savior, I do feel that his message and the direction he wants to lead us in is so much more positive and helpful that Mr. McCain.

I know there are thousands of political blogs, and I will be writing about politics more than usual, but I will also be visiting many of the other blogs out there and hoping to draw people into a discussion about what kind of country they want to live in.

I am doing this for my own mental health, for my children's future, in order to help my clients find easier ways to have health care, get an education and stay out of debt.

This is important. Maybe we can all work together to get it done.

Sarah Palin

Although I am neither a woman nor and African American I sent the following letter off to The Globe today.

When Thurgood Marshall died and left the vacancy on the Supreme
Court President G. H. W. Bush must have felt the pressure to fill the
chair with an African American. He did so by finding a man who was
certainly an African American but not one who would bring the
perspective of that segment of our society on to the court. Quite the
opposite, he has shown himself to be opposed to many of positions of
most African Americans on many significant issues. But, even at his
nomination hearings Judge Thomas felt he was being attacked because he
was Black.

Now, John McCain has selected a woman as his running mate. And
yes, she is undeniably a true woman, and she certainly does represent a
portion of the population of women. But her views do not represent
those who have fought for decades for women's rights, for equality, for
power, and respect. She is a conservative Christian who is
anti-abortion, anti-gay, and whose major qualification to be
vice=president is that, as a woman, she can somewhat look like Hillary.
This seems to be a cynical and manipulative choice., and an attack on
feminist women the way Clarence Thomas has been an anathema to African
Americans.

OR, stated more simply:

Clarence Thomas is to Thurgood Marshall
as
Sarah Polin is to Hillary Clinton

Re-emerging

Now the summer is beginning to fade. I have been away from everything for a while. We have been wandering around down here,taking time off. It was something I needed to do more than I realized. The last few months, with the back pain, with other vague but unrealized health worries, had put the focus on me much more than ever before.

With that comes the awareness that at my age sickness can lead to crumbling, can lead to being wiped off this planet. Isaac Hayes was just slightly older than me. Gene Upshaw was my age, so were abut twenty per-cent of the people on the obituary pages. It all kind of spooked me out. Me who is supposed to be so full of perspective and so calming.

I spent so much time thinking about thinking that it all kind of got to be a bit too much. I couldn't think about it any more. Who I was, what I was doing, what I want to be, how I want to spend the rest of my time, what is really important to me, all these things kept swirling through my head burning a deep hole but leaving no answers.

So we came down here, as we do every year. I thought I could use the time to get away, and maybe I could figure things out. Maybe something clear would emerge.

So far I've spent time hanging out with friends and doing things that take up time. Even golf. It's been very beautiful. The weather, the sea, the rolling green, the blue sky, the golden sun. The time has been easy, fun and even sociable.

Yet, there remains the vague feeling of something not yet accomplished. I have not yet mastered the art of just taking care of myself. Making deals and keeping myself entertained somehow just never seems to be enough. I'm not sure why.

Must be something my mother did or said. Maybe it was my father.

Still, I'm not sure what it is that I am expecting.

So today, after almost two weeks away, I am beginning to schedule appointments for next week. For the first time is six weeks I don't feel afraid of it. I am even just beginning to look forward to seeing everyone -- well almost everyone -- again.

Yet, I have decided that I need to re-allocate my time, find out what is missing, and what it is I expect to do, not just return to what has always been done and keep the ball rolling down the same familiar hill.

As I have said here many times, change is difficult. Even for me. Hopefully, this blog will help hold me accountable.