Coming Together

A father wanted to read a magazine but was being bothered by his little girl.  She wanted to know what the United States looked like.  Finally, he tore a sheet out of his new magazine on which was printed the map of the country. Tearing it into small  pieces, he gave it to her and said, "Go into the other room and see if you can put this together."

After a few minutes, she returned and handed him the map, correctly fitted and taped together. The father was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly. "Oh," she said,"'on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got all of Jesus back where He belonged, then our country just came together."

Not everything is that easy, is it? In our Retirement Center, the social room among other items often has three jigsaw puzzles in the making, three sizes with varying difficulty. On occasion, I will check what is happening and see how long it takes to put one piece in place. Sometimes I just give up and leave.

Unfortunately, this is pretty indicative of how we sometimes try to solve problems in our society. With a two or three party system – e.g. Democrats, Independents and Republicans – there should be a check-and-balance instead of a one-man-show (Party). There should be attempts to debate, compromise, explore more deeply and cooperate, not disrupt, vilify, stampede and above all, to act judiciously (circumspectly).

With two or more Parties, each can have its own agenda, true. However, those agendas should benefit the Tribe, State or Nation, not merely the Party's interests and objectives. We still retain a National Constitution with its provisions and amendments, which until changed (amended or discarded), must be obeyed. Civil disregard or dispute may be inevitable but the rules and regulations must remain intact until legally changed.

The father in the story above was surprised when his little girl solved the problem so quickly even though he most likely was both surprised and delighted how she did it. We citizens of our wonderful Country with its global impact could better solve our problems as well. Let's work together to assemble the puzzles spread out before us.