There was a Season...

I am listening to President Obama deliver the State of the Union address.  I am listening to his message of hope and vision of creating a better America.   I am looking at the speech through the eyes of this Aging Child.  I like the spirit of hope.

Sure, I am older, a bit jaded and know that a lot of what politicians say is rhetoric.  The State of the Union is a good news, feel good event.  The country is in the best shape since Obama took office.  That plays into the strength of his style of speaking.  While it is very hopeful, the talk is more about jobs and the economy than it I recall such speeches being or recall wanting them to be back when I was coming of age.

We had economic issues back then but there was really no shortage of jobs.  It was the peak of the post World War II US dominance over the economies of Europe and Japan that were rebuilding from the devastation of the war.  As we did not have to worry about jobs, we were free to take our worries to a higher plain, to think and dream on grander scale.  We were concerned about creating a world with lasting peace and prosperity for all.  Why not?  Or so we thought.

Today it is about the economy and the quality of life in this country.  Not so much for me and my children.  We are doing pretty well.  I worry about the growing gap created by the shrinking middle class. It is a very different country than in the days of Woodstock and the Summer of Love.  

Almost an hour into his speech and he is just getting into the two wars.  Today there is really only a division of left and right.  There is no generation gap, there is seemingly a unified support of our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.  We are a more tolerant society.  We have a half-African American President.  I did not think I would ever see that in my lifetime.

I liked the speech tonight.  I liked the vision and spirit of his message.  I am viewing the glass as half-full.  I am sure there will be rebuttals that will take it down a notch or two, but right now I am feeling good.

For some reason it made me think of the old song by the Byrds song, Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)."  It was actually written in 1959 by Pete Seeger but I remember the Byrds version most.  It is based on Verse 3 of The Book of Ecclesiastes attributed to King Solomon.

1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
3. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

It was not my favorite song of the day, but somehow it popped into my head, and fits the evening quite well.

Peace.