Sunday Smiles

David Strom 2:31 PM | November 05, 2023

Over the past few weeks, my smiles have looked more like grimaces.

You know why, of course. I am really sick and tired of being sick and tired. I think many of you are too.

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The list of things to be worried or angry about is getting too long, rivaling War and Peace in length. If things don’t slow down it may get as long as the US Tax Code or the Federal Register. Assuming Joe Biden doesn’t get us into WWIII, in which case only about 10% will be worrying about anything.

Still, with Thanksgiving coming up it’s a good time to think about what is going well in life, and how relatively lucky we are compared to most human beings who have ever lived. I get worked up about how things are going to hell, but I get my information through a miraculous machine that connects me to most of the knowledge ever produced, at lightning speed.

I have access to unlimited entertainment possibilities, have a magic box that keeps my food from spoiling, and that food comes from around the world at a reasonably affordable price. My home is 72 degrees most of the time, and when I have to go out I get to use an air-conditioned or heated conveyance that allows me to travel at speeds never experienced by human beings until the last century. If needed, I can hop in a craft that travels at over 30,000 feet and can cross distances in hours that used to take months at the risk of one’s very life.

So it’s not all bad. At all. My version of being really hungry is having forgotten to eat before dinner because I was too busy to think of it, not because there isn’t any food-like substance besides the grass or the rats scurrying around.

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I remember being amazed when I saw my first Apple II computer and played Star Trek. I thought it was cool, but I had no idea what was in store for me. Now I carry a small slab of glass in my pocket that has more computing power and does far more useful things than all the computers in the world when I was in high school. I used a 1200-baud modem in my youth, for God’s sake. I remember thinking a 14.4k modem was blazing fast when I bought one.

When it comes to the material conditions in which we live, things have never been better. Our problems are for the most part cultural and political.

History shows us, of course, that cultural and political problems can quickly translate into material problems and bring down a society even faster than material shortages. Ask anybody who has ever lived under communism or in a country that was taken over by Islamist barbarians. Iran and Afghanistan used to treat women well and have middle classes. Venezuela used to be a middle-class country. Imagine what Cuba would look like today if Fidel had not taken over.

So the cultural battles matter, but it’s important to take a step back and remember what we are fighting for. It’s for freedom, prosperity, and individual choice, and to pass on to the next generation the opportunity to live the American Dream.

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One quote from Ronald Reagan always comes to me when I think of putting down my pen, so to speak, and leaving the fight because it can be so exhausting:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Not if I can help it.

Sunday Smiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best party ever:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know what goes here:

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And now the cute stuff

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And finally…

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