THE NOBILITY OF THE NO

You have to get a little older to appreciate this. With age, something -- lets be bold enough to call it wisdom -- coats your view of your world. Instead of measuring your success and satisfaction by the number of plays, parties and events you can attend, you start measuring it by the number you don't have to attend. Known privately as the nobility-of-the-no!

If, for a candid moment, one can take their eye off the prize-of-power, it's entirely possible to draw some comparisons to one's country. As it ages, perhaps it too can ease into the nobility-of-the-no. No to the passion for power...the obsession with success...the need be number one...the demand to be first at everything...and especially the entirely unprovable premise that bigger is always better.

In the case of Americans, this thought is entirely and ridiculously counter-intuitive. I mean, what do you mean being anything but the best! Anything less than the most! Such thinking is downright un-American!

Yes it is.

But it once was for other great national powers too. Consider the fates of the greats of the past. Then consider how they have comfortably -- often joyously -- eased into the nobility-of-the-no to many of the challenges they once simply had to meet head on. In Europe alone we have the narratives of Greece, the ancient world's center of civilization, now the center of civilized memories...Italy, the great Rome, now the relaxed land of wines and tourists....France, the powerhouse of kings and Napoleon, now the warm magic of culture and Paris...England, the capitol of the world's largest empire, now better known simply for Shakespeare, London and charming country homes.

These were not necessarily national retreats. More like national awakenings. Awakening to the relaxed realization that there is something good about taking the slow road. About not seeing everything in life is a call to arms. About a nation wisely discovering what the adolescent tree-climber and adult deal-maker has discovered in older age...

...that it's perfectly OK to be second. Even third. Especially to stop breathlessly counting and start joyfully living.