We have hope flowing from a positive attitude for our tough times.
If anything I've learned in the past year or so is that hope in tough times is the difference between being willing to keep trying when it is emotionally exhausting and frustrating to keep trying. Regardless of your politics (and you get a sense of mine), this administration offers an outlook that abandons the fear that has saturated our nation and stymied us for seven years.
Facing chronic challenges with ups and downs is what proves that we are alive and building something. Being patriotic can mean different things to different people; it is not a universal sentiment. However, I believe that since September 11 the attitude that flowed from the Bush Administration defined patriotism as anger and fear.
Anger and fear are great motivators. These emotions have certainly pulled me through some tough times when struggling with what epilepsy will mean for my life. Anger and fear also evoke sympathy and commiseration from allies. But these emotions and the responses they inspire aren't sustainable. Think about those you know who are chronically pissed off or sad. They may have totally legitimate reasons, but damn, they are exhausting and sooner or later it is easier to cut off the relationship than to hear the problems rehashed again and again.
While I recognize that these emotional responses to 9-11 were appropriate for the American people, I don't personally think that acting on that anger and fear to invade other nations really got us the result we wanted and needed to heal. Though a personal scale is not the same as the national, I've learned from epilepsy that there comes a point where setting aside those dark emotions opens new alternative to address the problem.
Anger and fear are great motivators. These emotions have certainly pulled me through some tough times when struggling with what epilepsy will mean for my life. Anger and fear also evoke sympathy and commiseration from allies. But these emotions and the responses they inspire aren't sustainable. Think about those you know who are chronically pissed off or sad. They may have totally legitimate reasons, but damn, they are exhausting and sooner or later it is easier to cut off the relationship than to hear the problems rehashed again and again.
While I recognize that these emotional responses to 9-11 were appropriate for the American people, I don't personally think that acting on that anger and fear to invade other nations really got us the result we wanted and needed to heal. Though a personal scale is not the same as the national, I've learned from epilepsy that there comes a point where setting aside those dark emotions opens new alternative to address the problem.
For example, on Sunday my brain clicked off (my own damn fault--I'm responsible for missing a dose of meds). Yes, seizures makes me angry and afraid, but it is just a problem to be solved. When bad things happen, I can choose how I respond. When bad things happen in our country, we can choose how we respond.
When my brain resets a choice of emotional response presents itself: positive or negative. Like many others, I've invested about seven years being both pissed and apathetic about how the Bush administration chose to "solve" the problem of terrorism and my lack of backbone in opposing that choice.
But when Barack Obama took the Presidential Oath it crystallized the fact that I don't have to be afraid and angry to be a good, patriotic American. He is certainly not Jesus, waving a hand and making everything sunshine and rainbows. But he has chosen an attitude that is as resilient as the Bush Administration, but with an entirely different orientation towards solving a very difficult problem.
Hope.
Collaboration.
Openness.
Empowerment.
"Yes we can" tackle our very difficult national and international conundrums. No one is going to solve these but us. We choose how we respond: positive or negative. As I've learned from epilepsy's little surprises, I have to choose my own response to solve my own problems--even when those problems are isolating, complex and throw unexpected bombs into the mix. And writing off a problem solver as "inexperienced" overlooks that when you HAVE to take on a problem, you learn damn fast. There isn't any other option--trust me.
And if you are learning damn fast, you get over yourself and find good partners. I've struggled but learned that it's okay to admit that despite being smart and capable, not every problem has to be solved by Emily. I've learned that weakness isn't tied to admitting mistakes and changing course--weakness is being too afraid to admit that you've make a mistake, an error in judgment, and slathering on excuses to justify your choice.
Maybe I'm a bit lucky that every time the brain seizes, I get to forget a bit of the past. Not being able to remember every single detail of a painful moment or mistake is very freeing. It makes it somewhat easier to say, "whatever that was, it is in the past and its controlling intensity faded." Like in negotiation, a shift to a focus on the future makes a solving a problem more creative and more fun.
And a future focus welcomes hope to the table. Hope tends to hang out with creativity, tenacity, opportunity and humility. These attitudes are what gets it done.
But when Barack Obama took the Presidential Oath it crystallized the fact that I don't have to be afraid and angry to be a good, patriotic American. He is certainly not Jesus, waving a hand and making everything sunshine and rainbows. But he has chosen an attitude that is as resilient as the Bush Administration, but with an entirely different orientation towards solving a very difficult problem.
Hope.
Collaboration.
Openness.
Empowerment.
"Yes we can" tackle our very difficult national and international conundrums. No one is going to solve these but us. We choose how we respond: positive or negative. As I've learned from epilepsy's little surprises, I have to choose my own response to solve my own problems--even when those problems are isolating, complex and throw unexpected bombs into the mix. And writing off a problem solver as "inexperienced" overlooks that when you HAVE to take on a problem, you learn damn fast. There isn't any other option--trust me.
And if you are learning damn fast, you get over yourself and find good partners. I've struggled but learned that it's okay to admit that despite being smart and capable, not every problem has to be solved by Emily. I've learned that weakness isn't tied to admitting mistakes and changing course--weakness is being too afraid to admit that you've make a mistake, an error in judgment, and slathering on excuses to justify your choice.
Maybe I'm a bit lucky that every time the brain seizes, I get to forget a bit of the past. Not being able to remember every single detail of a painful moment or mistake is very freeing. It makes it somewhat easier to say, "whatever that was, it is in the past and its controlling intensity faded." Like in negotiation, a shift to a focus on the future makes a solving a problem more creative and more fun.
And a future focus welcomes hope to the table. Hope tends to hang out with creativity, tenacity, opportunity and humility. These attitudes are what gets it done.
I woke up yesterday and remembered what has slipped my mind for a long time:
I'm proud of my country.
I'm proud to be an American.
I'm proud of my country.
I'm proud to be an American.
4 comments:
George W is to America as epilepsy is to Emily
I for one am glad that the proud American known as Miranda Wrights showed up at derby practice last night, seemed to have a fuck ton of fun, and taught the ugly ducklings a few things!
Its a joy to see your smiling face and let me flirt with you ;)
Well said. It was rewarding to hear a speech that was well written and powerful. For the first time in a long time I am optimistic that we can come together as a nation in a positive way. Enjoy the words below, I know I did.
"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence -- the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."
America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."
I had been looking forwards to innauguration (sp?) day ever since election night. Unfortunately, family events conspired to keep me from watching even a moment of the big day. I lost all the sense of hope, encouragement, and positive thinking... until I read your post! So thanks - I was busy mourning on Innauguration day, but you just reminded me of why I was excited!
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