On Sunday, the minister at my church said she had a hard time figuring out where to start for her message that day because "there is so much to say, but it was hard to find words to put around it." Here we are a whole week later and I still feel much the same way. On my run this morning, my mind raced, jumping from anger to sadness and disappointment. As the dust has begun to settle this week, and the 'post mortum' is taking place, there is more blame and more anger. I think we are all still in a state of shock and I'm not sure when it will sink in, but the biggest thing this election has shown me is that we have work to do. We, the individuals that make up our always-has-been-great-nation have work to do with each other. More than anything, I think this election was a choice from the amygdala, the lizard part of our brain where the fight-or-flight response comes from. Things have gotten to the point where we have shut down so much that is the only part left working. This is serious, but it's not that anyone had a choice. The ugliness and hate, the fighting and mudslinging contained within this election cycle was a showcase of how far our breakdown as a nation has gotten. We are so divided we have resorted to hate and fear and bullying. If we want anything to change, we must stop the hate. The wonderful FLOTUS Michelle Obama did have wise words when she said 'When they go low, we go high." But even those words were taken and twisted and used to sling more ugliness around. What does that really mean, 'go high?" I am deeply saddened by this election and for what I see coming in our future. It makes me worry for my girls, my friends and my fellow Americans and I am prepared to resist, I am prepared to speak out and fight to make sure we don't undo all of the good that has happened here. But I am not going to raise my fist either in anger against or in solidarity with anyone. I am going to fight with love and understanding. The way we can take back our country, help heal the divides I see among neighbors and friends is through love and understanding. Isn't there a song somewhere that says "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me?" That is my plan. I am lucky to live in a mixed town. I say mixed because I know that I have friends that have far different political leanings than I do. I know who they are and how they voted and that is great because I also know that they are wonderful women with strong families and some of my favorite children. I am going to have coffee with them and ask, specifically, why they voted the way they did and what they'd like to see in our future. I want to know what they see that I don't and I will listen. As President Obama has said, 'we are all on the same team', so let's all start playing together. It isn't us vs. them, so let's figure out a way to be together. I know it's cliche, but we are more alike than we are different and we need to start shifting the focus in that direction instead of promoting the fight. Congress worked tirelessly for eight long years to prevent anything the President wanted to do and we must stop following that horrendous lead. If Trump could really figure out a way to impose term limits on Congress, I'd support it! If he can figure out a way to make health care better, bring it on! I know there is fear on that horizon and I understand the implications of who he is appointing and what may be in store for us all. But, what if we provided momentum for getting something done? What if we could all agree on one thing and we worked together to make it happen? Maybe then could we find some common ground on other things and help shift the focus from the fight?
Gandhi said, "In a gentle way, you can shake the world." I am going to reach out and talk and listen with a truly open mind and just maybe I can change my street and then my world.
Are you with me?
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Disney Magic
In the spirit of 'The American Way,' we went to Disney World. We stayed at a Disney Resort, had Disney 'magic bands,' and visited a different park each day. We saw it during the day and at night and we got see the transition between Halloween and Christmas (actually there was no transition, it was simply Halloween one day and Christmas the next). We ate the food, drank the water and stood in the lines. We wore Disney shirts and traded Disney pins with 'cast members' (anyone who works at Disney is a 'cast member.') We rode the Magic Express Bus to and from the airport and the Disney Transit System bus from park to park. Everything went off without a hitch! My sister and her family (she and her husband have two girls, just stair-stepped down from mine) had the adjoining room and the door stayed open all week, one big, happy family of 8 for 6 days! It was a vacation to remember! As it was November, the parks were all relatively empty. We drove through acres and acres of empty parking lots and walked through mile after mile of roped off lines with no one standing there. It was the ideal Florida vacation. Every day was 84 degrees and sunny. Shaun had spent hours and hours making sure we knew what we were doing and when. The entire experience was exactly perfect. But everyone keeps asking me if it was 'magical.' It wasn't magical, it was perfect. Our family has never been obsessed with Disney in any form, Mickey & Minnie or any of the movies. Sure, the girls loved to sing the songs from Frozen for longer than I'd wished, but they only watched the movie a handful of times. We had to show them The Lion King the week before we visited as we had tickets to see the show at Animal Kingdom and they still haven't seen Aladdin. There were no squeals of delight as we saw Pooh & Tigger run across the park, or Chip & Dale bound around the corner. There is no connection from our girls to any of the princesses, so maybe that's a big part of the 'magic' that was missing. Or maybe it was just me. Magic to me comes from the unexpected. Magic, to me, was looking at the Ponte Veccio bridge in Florence, Italy and seeing it the same way it had been seen 500 years ago. Magic was hearing a guide in northern Mexico talk about the altar in front of me being used for Aztec human sacrifice 700 years ago. Magic is looking down from the top of Longs Peak and seeing all the way to Kansas. Magic is watching the fog roll in and take away a view from the Royal Arch, above Boulder. Magic is watching the snow fall, the sun rise and the rivers run. To call Disney 'Magical,' is to cheapen magic somehow.
Disney was fun, it was a week of sights and sounds that I won't soon forget. It was an experience that will last a lifetime for the four girls who walked, hand in hand around the park and screamed their lungs out as we hurtled around curves and left our stomachs at the top of roller coaster hills. Now, this makes it sound like it didn't live up to some expectation or it wasn't that great. That's not it at all! It was exactly what I expected! Every nook and cranny of each line has something to look at. Disney thinks of each and every detail in their parks and makes sure it is perfect. We saw a hose, coiled in the three circle shape of Mickey's head and ears. The shampoo and conditioner in our bathroom had ears, and any latte ordered anywhere within the walls has foam art in the shape of ears as well (and even though the lid is put on before it sees the customer, it's there.) Disney thinks of everything. Despite the hoards of people walking through the park at any given moment, there is not a single scrap of trash outside of a trashcan. Nothing is broken (if something does break, it is walled off with an appropriately colorful barrier so that you don't even look at the offending brokenness. There are plenty of places to sit, just enough shade and water fountains and bathrooms around every corner. It was perfect. The mom of two young children part of me thinks this perfection is incredible, rather impossible really, that they could think of everything! I can see why families of little ones flock down there and return again and again. We had our own Disney travel agent to make sure we knew what we were doing before hand and the handy Disney app to answer any questions while we were there. And yet, 'The Happiest Place on Earth,' wasn't really that happy. Of course there were loads of people smiling and some kids genuinely beaming at watching the characters bounce around, but the overwhelming majority of these kids were either asleep in the stroller or begging to be. Red eyes and sullen faces, dragging themselves (or having their parents drag them) through the streets. Screaming babies, tantrum throwing toddlers, whiny preschoolers and their very frustrated parents dominate the landscape, but since there's always a kiosk selling Mickey key chains, Donald Duck t-shirts and Snow White's magic mirror, no one has to notice all of the unhappiness for more than a moment. The fire hose of stimulation blasts from every angle, every moment of the day. They're smart, those Disney folks, they have taken care of everything and when I stop to think about it, it is truly an amazing feat. We walked about 7 miles every day and not once did any of those four girls complain. They too were distracted by the little depictions of Brer Rabbit stories or picking out all of the animal shapes carved into the Tree of Life. They were always tired on the bus back to the hotel, but had no qualms about changing and jumping into the pool immediately and swimming for the next 2-3 hours! All of us adults headed for a beer and put our feet up, because yes, there is a bar at the pool (and more lifeguards than I've ever seen.) I'm telling you, they've thought of everything.
Maybe it's that I don't like to think my needs are that easily predicted. Maybe it's that I like adventure more than excitement. Maybe it's simply because I've never felt a special connection to anything Disney related, or maybe I'm just cynical and un-american. But wait, I'd recommend it to anyone! Disney was perfect and loads of fun and a trip I'll never forget, but for whatever reason, I'm quite satisfied in the knowledge that I never have to go back.
On to something new!
Disney was fun, it was a week of sights and sounds that I won't soon forget. It was an experience that will last a lifetime for the four girls who walked, hand in hand around the park and screamed their lungs out as we hurtled around curves and left our stomachs at the top of roller coaster hills. Now, this makes it sound like it didn't live up to some expectation or it wasn't that great. That's not it at all! It was exactly what I expected! Every nook and cranny of each line has something to look at. Disney thinks of each and every detail in their parks and makes sure it is perfect. We saw a hose, coiled in the three circle shape of Mickey's head and ears. The shampoo and conditioner in our bathroom had ears, and any latte ordered anywhere within the walls has foam art in the shape of ears as well (and even though the lid is put on before it sees the customer, it's there.) Disney thinks of everything. Despite the hoards of people walking through the park at any given moment, there is not a single scrap of trash outside of a trashcan. Nothing is broken (if something does break, it is walled off with an appropriately colorful barrier so that you don't even look at the offending brokenness. There are plenty of places to sit, just enough shade and water fountains and bathrooms around every corner. It was perfect. The mom of two young children part of me thinks this perfection is incredible, rather impossible really, that they could think of everything! I can see why families of little ones flock down there and return again and again. We had our own Disney travel agent to make sure we knew what we were doing before hand and the handy Disney app to answer any questions while we were there. And yet, 'The Happiest Place on Earth,' wasn't really that happy. Of course there were loads of people smiling and some kids genuinely beaming at watching the characters bounce around, but the overwhelming majority of these kids were either asleep in the stroller or begging to be. Red eyes and sullen faces, dragging themselves (or having their parents drag them) through the streets. Screaming babies, tantrum throwing toddlers, whiny preschoolers and their very frustrated parents dominate the landscape, but since there's always a kiosk selling Mickey key chains, Donald Duck t-shirts and Snow White's magic mirror, no one has to notice all of the unhappiness for more than a moment. The fire hose of stimulation blasts from every angle, every moment of the day. They're smart, those Disney folks, they have taken care of everything and when I stop to think about it, it is truly an amazing feat. We walked about 7 miles every day and not once did any of those four girls complain. They too were distracted by the little depictions of Brer Rabbit stories or picking out all of the animal shapes carved into the Tree of Life. They were always tired on the bus back to the hotel, but had no qualms about changing and jumping into the pool immediately and swimming for the next 2-3 hours! All of us adults headed for a beer and put our feet up, because yes, there is a bar at the pool (and more lifeguards than I've ever seen.) I'm telling you, they've thought of everything.
Maybe it's that I don't like to think my needs are that easily predicted. Maybe it's that I like adventure more than excitement. Maybe it's simply because I've never felt a special connection to anything Disney related, or maybe I'm just cynical and un-american. But wait, I'd recommend it to anyone! Disney was perfect and loads of fun and a trip I'll never forget, but for whatever reason, I'm quite satisfied in the knowledge that I never have to go back.
On to something new!
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