InSpiritry

Let today embrace the past with remembrance

and the future with longings.

Kahlil Gibran 

As the west wind of our first real cold front swept the last bits of summer aside yesterday (and I changed from shorts-and-Tshirt to blue jeans-and-a sweater!), I was reminded of the blessing of the seasons. Each one is a new beginning, and not just for Nature. As the trees throw off their stiffened leaves and settle in for some well-deserved rest, we too can begin a new season. Fall, especially, offers a time of reconsideration–a chance to leave behind old sadnesses, errors, grudges and regrets. We can rethink our priorities and recommit to our best selves. We can rediscover gratitude and optimism. We can change! (more…)

For two decades, Americans have romanced the idea of money.

First, it was the dot-com boom with twenty-somethings turning into millionaires overnight. Then came the housing bubble with charming neighborhood homes being torn down to build McMansions. Later, morning talk programs were eclipsed by financial news shows with live stock market feeds. Late night television followed with Mad Money’s Kramer becoming a national celebrity.  Year by year, credit cards replaced savings accounts as individual safety nets. Leverage became the new business plan. More and more college students were graduating with enormous school loans. America piously preached democracy and capitalism to other countries, then proved the limits of that system with our own avarice. Washington was no different. To repay campaign donations, politicians owed lobbyists their livelihoods. Even the U.S. government became mired in debt, and, internationally, we earned the label of the biggest debtor nation.

Is it any wonder that the stock market and the American economy are crashing down around us?

But, despite the gloom and doom from Wall Street, despite our own personal crises, despite the political rhetoric, all is not lost.  (more…)

Politicians and Financial Leaders Bicker over Wall Street Bailout

Presidential Candidate Suspends Campaign

Congressional Talks on Credit Crisis Breakdown

As recent headlines suggest– this fall, what was to be our rapt attention to America’s quadrennial electoral season has been totally derailed. The usual political banter in urban coffee shops and small town restaurants has almost completely shifted away from evaluation of the candidates (except regarding their media-hyped personalities) and discussions of the party platforms (most people don’t even know what these documents contain). Instead, wealthy investors as well as those living paycheck-to-paycheck are transfixed by the hour-to-hour coverage of our national financial crisis. Money and the curse of its power have consumed us. With unpredictable posturing, media-generated suspense and continuing financial bad news, the whole country has become obsessed with the Reality TV programming of Washington and New York as they reconsider their mortgages and their 401(k) allocation.

Hellooo, America! In just five weeks, as part of the most successful democracy in the world, we will be asked to select the party and individuals to lead our country for the next four years! (more…)

Both the marketplace and the political world have seen a “dangerous erosion of the rules and principles” that have made American economy thrive in the past…“Instead of thinking about what’s good for America or what’s good for business,” he said, “a mentality has crept into certain corners of Washington and the business world that says, “what’s good for me is good enough.” Baltimore Sun article, September 17, 2007

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

These comments were made by Presidential candidate, Barak Obama, in a speech at NASDAQ this week where he chastising Wall Street values. Whether we support Senator Obama or not, his remarks are worth noting and worth expanding past financial considerations to the world at large. I think it is safe (and sad) to say that most of us operate with the mentality he described: what’s good for me is good enough.

You might ask: 

• What’s the problem with that? (more…)