This morning it was frosty and blue, and the orange rose sun was silhouetting the pines down in the hollow. Glorious. I coughed out a breath of cold air and picked up the newspaper.
Not so glorious:
- Banks shares fall
- Local farmers on brink of foreclosure
- Governor prepares to make new budget cuts
And that was just above the fold.
The weight and volume of stark, terrifying news coming out of the media today just floors me.
The narrative: we are going to hell. Your job is next.
The message: hoard money.
Is this true? Are we really going to hell? Does no one have a job? Should no one spend any money?
No, no, no and no, writes Lisa Solod Warren, in her litotically-titled piece, "Not Shopping Is Not a Moral Act."
The post inspired lots of comment, but none better than this one from Chicago Guy: "The narrative of goods and services being bought and sold for value. That's huge."
Chicago Guy's is the emerging myth of 2009 I hope will get a little traction-- rather than the hell in a hand-basket one.
Here is the narrative: President Obama was in Canada and stopped off at a bakery to buy pastries for his daughters. He took out his wallet to pay for them. Everyone was thrilled. A photo was taken.
(Go here for the story and the photo-- I love the contrast between the smiling Obama and the stony-faced guy on the left.)
In short: a guy with money is spending it on his family.
The message: we should too.
I know that we are all in terrible debt, many of us have been laid off, and the rest are in danger of it. I am right there with you.
But I like this story, especially in context.
Do you remember when the president yelled at us to go out and shop after 9/11?
As if nothing had happened?
That was a time of profound grief for us. It was a time when we could have channeled our grief into a new direction for the country: national service, health care reform, something significant.
Instead, we buried our grief in a flood of macho posturing-- the national shrug of the shoulders, the "I'm good," and then, national financial suicide.
Obama is doing something about our economy. Opinions differ as to whether it will work or not. But he's acting, and he's engaged.
And instead of telling people to go shopping, he's just doing it. That's the best way to get a story started, because no one likes to have it preached at them.
Anyway, regardless of what story we subscribe to and concentrate on, the reality is this: it doesn't matter how much we hoard. If no one buys anything, eventually no one will have any jobs anyway.
For the past four years, I've hunkered down while others spent, in order to survive the end of an abusive marriage and chart a new career direction. It didn't matter. I'm in debt, because I provide for my kids. But I'm buying, and I'll be traveling this spring, because I'm in love.
What was below the fold this morning? A 30-year old computer programmer just made $700,000 selling an app for the IPhone. He did it in his spare time before and after work.
Pick your stories carefully, America.
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b Koscelny
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Comments
We need to ask ourselves when we go shopping, if I buy this, will I use it? How often?
And if the answer is no, it'll just gather dust, then we need to put it back.
I'm not saying don't buy anything, I'm saying don't buy things that you're not going to use. I'm not saying, don't buy the coffeemaker, I'm saying don't buy bottled water for it.
I guess my point is that regardless of what we do in real life, we need to have stories that point us in a good direction. Not stories that encourage willful denial, but those that give us a viable alternative to doom.
Former President Clinton was talking the other day about how Obama is not being hopeful enough. I don't know about that. I know that we are in a period of doom prophecy and we need to find a balance between that and Bush dreamland.
Clinton on Obama and hope:
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/20/bill-clinton-tells-president-obama-to-turn-up-the-hope/
However what infuriates me more is the manufactured news. I really wish that the news divisions would focus more on how we're going to dig ourselves out of this mess than the sound-bite-du-jour from either side.
I would like more investigation, more fact finding, less video of Boener and/or Cantor throwing a hissy fit at being "excluded from bipartisanship". And if I see McCain's mug again shaking his head at how misguided Obama's proposals are, I will scream. Hmm.. maybe because he actually WON in November, we should give him the benefit of the doubt .. ??
But I digress...
I'm predicting that Obama's address to congress tonight will hit some more hopeful points.