Outside The Box

I don’t watch the State of the Union address. I read the transcripts, but I’d rather watch a Youtube video on how to repair the latest malady of my money-pit truck, or a rerun of a 60-year-old sitcom. Since George H. W. Bush, the speech has been given by malefactors, amateurs, war criminals, charlatans, narcissists, and grifters. You can decide for yourself the president to which some, or all of these apply.

The Georgia State of the State address, however, is something I do try to watch, and if there was a State of the County address I would watch that too. I’m much more content with the goings-on at the state and local levels, and these speeches, especially the latter, seem more than politics and theater. They affect me personally, and suggest that I might have a chance of affecting them. This week, however, we’ll stick to the subject I’m most qualified to address: The State of the Cove. Here are a few of the highlights.

The forced fiscal tightening brought on by the ongoing theft of our purchasing power has not caused doom to descend upon us just yet. We have become ruthlessly aggressive shoppers, and the bozine (my own word, referencing Bozo the Clown) handling of our nation’s fiscal policy continues to encourage us to shop the outer aisles at the grocery store, which is the healthiest place to shop anyway.

Too many of our friends and associates are aging rapidly. We’re concerned that eventually someone will notice that time has apparently stood still for Tracey and me, which might cause resentment and suspicion. This hasn’t happened yet, but any day now.

We suspect that this premature aging of our friends and family is caused by excessive consumption of news and media and perhaps too much shopping on the inner aisles of the grocery store. I had to remind a friend just the other day that instead of talking about his medications we should be planning our next adventure, and he should eat more salads.

Once again this year the grass, the bamboo and the poison ivy are growing much too rapidly. Someone forgot to tell the plants that warmer temperatures and extra CO2 spell doom. Everything here is growing faster, and bigger. Just like last year, I am complaining about the extra mowing, the trimming, the chopping, and carrying. I’m not complaining, however, that I still fit comfortably in those 34 jeans and after the grumbling, which is mostly for show, I thank God for our good health, and the privilege of having something to mow and trim and chop and carry.

We have decided this year never to live with carpet again. Ever. We had our carpet removed and replaced with tile and you would not believe what was living underneath. It was appalling. We were walking barefoot on THAT!? Breathing that? How did we not sicken and die? We vacuumed regularly and even had an industrial carpet cleaner we used frequently, but millimeters away from our skin, a chemical and biological disaster was ongoing.

The new flooring was definitely a step up in the health department, but in the process of obtaining it we also got new information that affects not only the state of the cove, but that of the county, state, and perhaps even the nation. We now believe that the youngest generation now entering the workforce is going to make it. I think it’s called Generation Z, and the infotainment doom peddlers have consistently given them a bad rap.

The young men who labored intensively to move our furniture, remove the baseboards, rip out the carpet, condition the subfloor, install the tile, replace the baseboards, and put the furniture back in place were as professional as any contractors I have ever seen. The supervisor told me they would arrive at 9:30 AM. They knocked on the door at 9:29.

They were highly skilled, energetic, and focused. Not only that, but they were respectful, gregarious, and funny. They were eager to talk with us when the work allowed, and we learned a bit about their ideas and motivations. Said one of the guys, “I don’t have time for politics; try to stay out of any conversations about it. I’m too busy working and trying to make a better life for my family.”

The Wall Street Journal tells me that Generation Z is returning to the skilled trades. College is unaffordable and for many students, not a good investment. GenZ is becoming technicians, welders, craftsmen, plumbers, and electricians. It would seem to follow that real-world experience would also encourage real-world values.

The doom peddlers present GenZ as angry but feckless – unable to change a tire but willing to throw a rock at a police officer. The truth is that the majority are not trashing college campuses and protesting things they don’t understand or proselytizing ideals they did not acquire through their own experience and reasoning. That minority represents a combined failure of parenting and education, whereas the majority is just like we were at that age, and often better.

In the young men who visited our cove recently and the screaming students arrested for vandalism and assault, I see the dividing line between values and ideals. Values can function just fine without ideals. They can build a life and feed a family. Ideals without values can be dangerous. They are too easy to manipulate.

Which leads us to one of the main themes in human history in its wars and self-made disasters. The outlook from the cove is optimistic, but those who control information will never promote that viewpoint. Let’s hope that the values being nurtured by ordinary people make a comeback in the real world through the younger generations, prevailing over the extreme beliefs of the minority that have shaped the narrative.