LETTERS & TRAVELS WITHOUT LIMIT

One of our busiest national habits is writing letters and editorials -- in the paper, on the Internet, especially to whoever's in charge of whatever we're trying to change. School board member, mayor, member of Congress. president, whoever's the handiest when we're out to complain about something.

What's interesting about most of our letters and editorials is we're always demanding something we're absolutely, positively sure is absolutely, positively necessary. The school's textbooks teach the wrong things! the teachers are making too much money! the snow removal is too slow! the taxes and regulations are all wrong! you're misusing our military! hey, and another $50-100 million could really fix this road/track/canal/beach/park/fishery!

Now take that last group. The ones asking for government funding. In just one day I totalled the money-demanding letters and editorials. If everyone got what they demanded, the national debt would have spiked another 10% by sunset. I mean, there is absolutely no limit to the number of expensive ideas floating around out there; but there is an absolute limit to what we have to spend.

So what's the result...? Does all our money-demanding fury accomplish anything...? Probably not, except it gives the demandee the passing satisfaction of having demanded their demands in public. Bingo - good citizenship in action, end of story!

Actually, though, the real story would be if more of us demanding citizens offered to help spend what there is to spend, and stop pretending our demands are anywhere near as important as our duty.

TRAVELING WITHOUT A PASSPORT

Traveling is getting harder every day. Passports, security checks, screenings, waiting. However, there's one kind of travel that's a wide-open, passport-free adventure whenever and wherever we choose. The travels of the mind

Day-dreaming, musing, contemplating, call it what you will, it's instantly available to any mind that hasn't been calcified by the demands of the immediate. True, we must live in the world's immediate reality, but we should never lose the gift for living in the realities configured by our own minds and memories. That would be like denying Christmas, Peter Pan, the Wizard of Oz, and all those sacred moments you shared with the people most important in your life up till this very minute.

Riding the train, waiting in an airport, drifting off to sleep? These are those anointed moments when you alone hold the cosmos in your hands. To recall, reflect, re-live, re-discover. It's drugs without the cost! Highs without the crash! Travels without the hassle.
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