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I’m hooked on politics — and, like all addictions, quitting chilly turkey may be actually powerful.
I ought to know. I’ve give up many instances, solely to fall again into the darkish aspect yearly.
Talking of chilly turkey, getting my habit underneath management at all times occurs proper round Thanksgiving. Sure, I give up politics in late November yearly simply to get re-grounded in what life is absolutely about.
However let’s start by itemizing issues that life shouldn’t be about.
It shouldn’t be about “crimson waves” that both succeed or fail in November elections. Life shouldn’t be about Nancy Pelosi stepping down as speaker of the Home. Neither is it about Joe Biden forgetting what nation he’s speaking about, or greedy for phrases which are extra steadily lacking from his vocabulary.
Life isn’t about which overzealous political celebration controls the Senate or the Home, or why Congress spends trillions extra {dollars} than we ship them annually. It’s not about Donald Trump, Trump, Trump operating for president for the third time.
The political record of what IS NOT vital in life is lengthy, whereas the political record for what IS vital in life is brief, though Washington, D.C. and the nationwide information media would have us suppose in any other case.
So, from Thanksgiving via the vacations, I swear off politics, as a substitute of swearing at politics, till the tip of the yr. Achieved. Kaput. Nil. Zip. Nada!
My ideas can be primarily on household and pals and Buddy, my canine. Sure, Buddy is much extra vital in my life than 435 members of Congress who couldn’t agree on what day of the week it was if a vote was taken in the present day.
I can be occupied with the 48 years my spouse, Josie, gave me earlier than the Lord wanted her greater than me. She blessed me with two exceptional kids, who then blessed me with six grandchildren. They received’t inform me, however I do know they want my consideration greater than Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
You don’t need to hear a doting grandfather go on about his grandkids, however let me at the least record their names: Ally, Andrew, Maddie, MacGregor, and the twins, Oscar and Oliver. The Lord took Oliver away at delivery with out rationalization, however I do know that Josie has Oliver in her arms proper now. God Bless them each.
However there’s one grandchild that you could be know or have examine. I’ve written a lot about her through the years. Her title is Maddox Lucille McClintic, or Child Maddie, as I used to name her. I can’t do this any longer now that she is in center college.
You see, Maddie was born with Down syndrome, and I’ve at all times been involved, like every grandparent, about how her friends will react to her.
I hope they see what I see. A bit of lady who has needed to work twice as exhausting to do many issues all of us take without any consideration. A bit of lady who spreads smiles behind her like pixie mud. A bit of lady who respects folks no matter race, gender, faith, or politics. She sees magnificence in issues we overlook. She sings within the choir and dances ballet all in an effort to be extra like “us.”
The reality is I have to be extra like her. I believe all of us have to be extra like Maddie, and see what’s proper in entrance of us, and to concentrate on these closest to us, as a substitute of getting caught up in life’s each day worries.
Straightforward to say, exhausting to do, which is why I discover myself setting this time of yr apart to do precisely as Maddie would have me do.
As we come off every week of giving thanks and transfer right into a time of giving items, I hope all of you have got a Maddie in your life — possibly a mother or dad, youngster, or grandchild, that particular one that may help us acknowledge how fragile and fleeting our time actually is and assist us flip our consideration to these most expensive. They’re those we are able to study extra from than we may ever educate them. They’re the present that actually counts.
So goodbye politics, division, finger-pointing, name-calling, and all that goes together with the present local weather in Washington today, and good day to household and pals, and the additional time I’ve on my palms by not losing it watching cable information.
Don’t fear about me. I’ll return to a grumpy outdated man, pissed off with how we handle our nation, proper after the primary of the yr.
Pleased holidays, Alpena Information readers.
Greg Awtry is the previous writer of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York Information-Instances. He’s now retired and residing in Hubbard Lake. Greg may be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.
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