Growing up in America vs Growing Old in America

I grew up in America full of promise and hope and progress. America was the best. We’d made mistakes but we were fixing them and improving.

But really it was a lie. I mean we DID make progress and life was good. But most americans -- me included -- did not see the price. We were spoiled. Our fantastic economy and materialistic culture was and still is built on exploitation and abuse of people in other places out of sight. Our military overstepped its role and hurt people in their own lands. We were conveniently kept oblivious of this -- most of the time.

The other thing that was a lie? That peace & prosperity was the norm. Chaos, war, oppression are the norm around the world and throughout history. I grew up in a brief period of the 20th century where the USA was mostly at peace and mostly prosperous. And willing to ignore most of the bad stuff.

Now, Americans are being broken out of their bubble of comfort and excess and privilege and taking things for granted. Me included.

Life is hard. A functioning society is hard work. Assholes are power hungry. The privileged abuse those who aren’t privileged. None of this is new... except to those of us who've been oblivious the past 50ish yaers.

Reality: Coping with the hard stuff, enjoying the life we are given, making moral responsible choices as best we can, enjoying our people and our moment, being grateful for when things go right, being resolved and tenacious and also wise about when things go wrong.

my plan: Find and enjoy small joys. Love my people. Keep hope alive. Do no harm.