Just as America spent part of last week scoring everything from the president to the media, I decided that the American public should be scored.  As a matter of fact, I think it’s a great idea to begin scoring a host of other things that impact us. After all we score schools, books, music and anything else that we deem as transitional or disposable.We spend an inordinate amount of time researching what is best and identifying the various attributes that make it, that way.  

But in a time when tensions are high, jobs are few and patience is wearing thin, we too can be judged.Sure, we spend just a little bit more time trying to make wise purchases, shopping for sales, making sure our dollar goes just a bit further in a downward economy, but that’s about it.  We have entered a period of time when for many of us, it is just a season and we have put aside any real opportunity to make lasting changes in the way we live or who we are…present company included. 

It is as if we are on a theme park adventure ride and although scary, we are waiting for the three minutes to be over.  We scream loudly, and it’s scary, but it’s only a ride and we sit hoping that it will end soon. And it is with that same spirit that we passively grade everything around us, as if they (the Congress, Senate, president, etc.) have at the tip of their fingers the power to turn the switch off, but they won’t. 

So we sit in motion as helpless thrill-seeking riders in an amusement park without a conductor to turn the rides off. Welcome to the “real world.” We mouth the words, but fail to accept the realism of the moment; our recovery as a country will take a longer period than we would hope. 

Not a year, and quite possibly not two years, but now the experts are saying it could be three or four years to see the economy, inclusive of the stock market, housing, unemployment and even healthcare, make enough upward strides to become strong viable indicators again. But it’s hard to be a part of a country that (even today with all that we are unhappy with) spends, earns, consumes, and disposes of more natural and produced material than any other in the world, to sanction the way we are sitting back and complaining about the life we “uses to have.”

Just a thought. Try this. Go to your nearest bookstore, library, e-reader…etc, and pick up a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese” or better still find a copy of Sweet Honey in the Rock’s song, “Are My Hands Clean?” and answer the question. With out hesitation, open your eyes and look around and find the closest person you see you has lost it all.  Now get in your car that you are able to pay for, go to the place that provides shelter from the heat and plan the dinner that you will enjoy with those that you care about…no whining, seems pointless, doesn’t it?