Surf's Up

We’ve just had the Mavericks surf competition here in Northern California -- the first time in two years we’ve had waves sufficient to challenge the world-class competitors who come here when the conditions are right.  Some years, the waves are better than at others, but winning the competition is all about how well the surfers catch them. It’s a reminder to me of how life’s cycles work.

There’s a lot of optimism in the air right now, it seems. The troops are coming home, and we could very well be looking at a period of time when we’re not involved in a war. Housing starts are up, and home sales should have their best season in years with some of the lowest interest rates in history – as long as buyers qualify. The jobless rate is dropping; stocks are going up and 401ks are getting fatter. It seems almost inevitable that a down cycle reverses by itself, but we have our part in that process.

Some say that climate change is simply a natural cycle, but most scientists agree that we have our part to play there as well. In his inauguration speech, President Obama noted that the transition to sustainable energy sources would be a long and difficult path. But this transition is already underway, and he said that instead of trying to resist it, the United States has to lead it. He said that while freedom was a gift from God, we have to secure it here on Earth. The Declaration of Independence, to which he referred continually in his address, says that we have a right to life and liberty – but happiness is something we have to pursue.

A young woman I know is taking advantage of a personal “up” cycle. She is recovering from a long bout with a chronic illness, and thanks to the exploding housing market, she’ll be selling her small San Francisco Bay Area home at a substantial profit soon and moving to a Southern state where home prices – and taxes – are much lower. After visiting this new state and falling in love with a particular area, she knows this is the right move for her. I envy her her certainty about it. She’s pursuing her happiness, and if she finds things less than perfect when she arrives in her new home, she’s one who won’t rest until she makes up the difference.

Evolution is an irresistible process, and so, it seems, are the cycles of life. We’re definitely in an upswing, a moment of economic and political opportunity, as the President pointed out. Is this a window to end the paralyzing gridlock in Washington? The wave’s breaking, and let’s hope and pray that he and the Congress, and by extension, we the people (to refer to the Declaration again) have the sense to catch it.

Feet of Clay

Thank you, Lance, and thank you, Oprah. The cat, as they say, is out of the bag. Our world has been rocked. Now what?

Shouldn’t we be a little used to hearing about the fatal flaws of our heroes or pillars of the community? Lance is just the latest in a pretty long line, of course. Many of the recent ones are from sports, like Jerry Sandusky. Politics? Arnold Schwarzenegger. Entertainment/media? Jimmy Savile of the BBC. Finance? Bernie Madoff. Part of us must enjoy seeing the mighty fall – but there’s the other part that yearns for someone absolutely flawless.

I’ve always believed that Human Being 1.0 comes with a “worship chip.” That’s why we invented religion. Atheism doesn’t fix this. If we don’t have religions or churches in the traditional sense, we make them up. The Baseball Hall of Fame. The Oscars. American Idol.

Americans in particular, as I have often said, turn everything into an Olympic sport. If you look at it from a distance, the whole notion of putting singers with widely differing talents – or actors, for that matter – into some kind of competition is a little silly. I knew the Last Days couldn’t be far off when I saw a similar competition on one of the food channels about who made the best cupcakes.

But we do have to have our winners. Those who get close to the top often feel the most pressure to get there and stay there. They know that no one is going to remember them if they only win the Silver Medal. Or become First Runner-Up. Or the last to be voted off the island. So they do bad things – in the case of Mr. Armstrong, some pretty awful things. Once they get to the top, they get into an almost life-and-death struggle to hide anything that would threaten that status. The tragedy is, those within striking distance of the top have extraordinary talent long before they dope, cheat, lie or commit other unsavory acts.

Once they’re on top, the majority of us want to keep them there. Investigative reporters go against the grain. They try to give us the truth. Someday, the majority of us are grateful, but for a long time, we just don’t want to hear it – which is why it takes extraordinary courage to do that job. The criers in the wilderness face scorn, financial ruin, and even threats of death.

When one of our idols is actually toppled, we’re ready to fix blame, but as usual, the idol wouldn’t have been on a pedestal quite as high without our help.

BTW, I write this under the influence of a performance-enhancing drug, which you may have heard of: caffeine. I leave it to you to decide if the performance was actually enhanced.

Crimes of Power, Crimes of Passion

The year seems to be getting underway with a focus on a hard but painfully necessary discussion about rape.

In India, the rape and murder of a young woman, allegedly by a gang of five men, has the entire country debating the status of women, while Stateside a similar incident is shining an unpleasant light on a small Ohio town and the prevailing attitudes not only about women, but about the status of high school football players in small towns.

These days, of course, reflections of such incidents surface in electronic form. Two high school footballers in Steubenville, Ohio, are being charged in the rape, but a recording of another player mocking the girl has gone viral on the Internet, betraying an attitude held not only by him but by others around him. Now, many are wondering whether the authorities are minimizing the incident to protect the football team.

There is always collateral damage with these things now. In Steubenville’s case, the attention being paid to this is earning the town an unsolicited label – not nearly as permanent as Aurora or Newtown, of course, but one that could leave a scar.

Many of us may be pleased with this country’s growing tolerance for such things as gay marriage, and we may think of ourselves in general as being pretty enlightened on issues of equality. But let’s remember that women have had the right to vote here for less than a century. And on a very basic level, when it comes to the question of how women function, men can still display a surprising level of ignorance. Some of them get elected to Congress.

Rape is a crime I don’t understand. I wasn’t raised with any particular focus on respecting women, but it wasn’t a problem: the women around me were always respected, and while society may have accorded them a different role, they were never considered “less than” anyone else. Why there are those who feel this way is something of a mystery to me, but if this seems enlightened, I can’t take any credit for it – that’s just the way it was when I was growing up.

But if rape is a crime of power, and not passion, as they say, it means those who commit it are simply afraid of losing what they think they have or believe they are owed. And yes, even in 2013, we do need to have a serous discussion about where such attitudes come from, and how we’re going to deal with them.

Cliffhanger

Thelma and Louise live. The car didn’t plunge off the cliff; the front wheels are dangling over the edge, and for the moment, the rear wheels are still on solid ground. But the fact remains that the folks in Washington did as close to nothing as they could.

The can got kicked all right, but even “down the road” is euphemistic. I’m happy for those whose 401(k)s are heading up right now, but I still think that as Americans, our faces should be beet red this morning because the Congress and the White House put us through this, and failed to take the smallest of steps to keep it from happening again in two months. China is upset with us today, and deservedly so: 70 percent of its investments are here. The bill also left out relief for Superstorm Sandy losses.

I am not a deficit hawk by any means. It’s clear that if cuts are too severe, we’ll go into recession, but there has to be some sort of reasonable balance, and pain has to be shared. Cuts have to be made, but the wealthy (meaning much higher than $400,000 per) have gotten used to drastically lower tax rates than in earlier decades. The shared pain has to be something tolerable.

I’ve always felt that the economy doesn’t owe anyone a living. Nor does government. Needs change, including the need for certain kinds of jobs. Today’s source of income may not be tomorrow’s. Evolution is an irresistible force.

We all love instant solutions, but it’s very likely there won’t be an immediate bailout. We’re going to have to sit in the boat with our feet in the water up to our knees for a while. What government has to do is at least keep the boat floating. Apparently, that job will be up to the new Congress, not the one we have now.