In honor of my circle

Amongst a few friendly souls seated in a comfortable circle winding down a lovely backyard family party, my son said he wished more people felt free to share their thoughts about what's going on. Music to my ears, and the key word to others, also, must have been "share."

Fortunately, I hesitated, for a moment before offering copies of a tiny booklet I had tucked in my purse, "just in case." Otherwise, we would not have enjoyed yet another treat of the day from our genial host remarking that he thinks most people just want to do what's best for our country. Following full company agreement, I then asked if anyone would like to look at the booklet I have found useful in my study of current events and the fine gentleman to my left held out a hand. When he read the cover aloud, my host chuckled and advised me, "He's a liberal, you know," which I didn't. Maybe I should have, from the conversation we'd had earlier about his vast store of history on our local Giant Sequoias. But I have many friends a bit younger than I who share a productive perspective with me about what they call their "tree hugging days." I have a life-long fondness for the unique beauty nature provides my locale. I smiled when the gentleman to my left politely said he would put the booklet in his backpack and offered his description of himself as “an old fashioned liberal, more like an old fashioned conservative."
We all spoke of various ways in which a community might take back responsibility for the "safety net" currently provided by government that appears, once again, to be choking off individual endeavor. A thoughtful counter-argument ensued with reference to Giant Sequoias slain a century ago by the relentless sense of manifest destiny in the American lumber business. "Those folks thought then that the bounty of the land in America was endless," said the man to my left, and we all agreed people must be good stewards of our planet.
Then, surprise, surprise! Instead of producing a long list of evils inflicted by man upon nature, the man on my left led the discussion to a consideration of the present economic dangers of too many regulations. Again, good fortune at my side, I resisted the urge to plunge into my own list of evils in that regard. That was when I realized my luck is always in the company that I keep. He had earlier encouraged my passionate recollection of a failed effort to draw a community to good works, stifled by residents of means who had declined to contribute because they said, "We already pay enough taxes to take care of that sort of thing." I said I could only wish I'd had enough sense then to address that issue usefully with these friends I knew had our nation's best interests at heart.
All of a sudden, I could hear myself exclaiming, “What I wish I had said was, ‘Hey –what would you rather do with your money: give it to the government threshing machine or directly produce what you see most useful?’” – and everybody laughed. And that’s when I knew I’d finally accomplished the purpose of all my ranting for the last several years. At least, what appears to me now is that I may have achieved a useful sense of humor.
Thank you, Jerry Seinfeld! It really has helped me a lot to sit at my word processor as I review daily events on the tube and type “yadayadayada . . .”