Healthcare Reform—Seeds of Change

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Linda Jenkinson

seeds of change

When you plant a row of new seeds, it’s amazing to watch the extraordinary changes the seeds undergo as they push their way through the earth and grow. Of course, when you plant a row of seeds, you must help them change and become the strong plants that provide a good harvest. Pruning is a big part of gardening. The gardener must cull the weakest seedlings in the row and nurture the strongest. As the strong plants grow to maturity, often the gardener must cut back some of their branches and pinch off the weaker blossoms.

Over time, Americans have watched the private health care system grow. However, it seems to have grown without the help of diligent gardeners. Parts that should have been nourished have been pinched off and parts that should have been pruned have been allowed to thrive. Today’s private health care system is no longer a friendly plant in the American garden. In fact, for many Americans, it has developed some fairly brutal thorns.

Today our legislators are developing a new seed that we call health care reform. Right now they are considering a hybrid–a seed generated from the existing health care system with several new features that will benefit American citizens.

The public health care proposal isn’t perfect, but it is only a seed and the time to plant is now. Of course, all Americans will need to step into the garden and put their effort into the growth and change of public health care. We’ll have to be vigilant in culling the weaker parts of the program and nurturing the stronger parts. If we do, we may see some amazing changes in the quality of life in our garden.

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August

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Linda Jenkinson

Creeks and wooded walkways had all been explored.

Forts were built and dismantled; some were rebuilt and some were abandoned.

The days were hot, too hot for outdoor play, and so after supper we all went out into the dusk to reconnect our friendships with backyard (and front-yard) games.

  • No Ghosts Are Out Tonight.
  • Hide and Seek.
  • Freeze Tag.
  • Statues, although Statues was forbidden—(“You’re gonna pull someone’s arm right out of the socket” “You’re gonna fling someone right into a tree, if you’re not careful”)

The dusk would deepen into night and we could be seen coming out of our houses with blankets and pillows, preparing for one more ‘sleep out’. We would lay under the stars laughing and giggling at the corny jokes we had heard and retold, deliciously shivering in mock-fear of local ghost stories and urban legends; the next one of us trying to outdo the last one. Finally, we would all climb into our bedrolls with sleepy eyes and try to pick out the constellations above as sleep picked us off one by one.

In the morning, we would wake up waterlogged with dew and trundle back into our houses where comfortable beds invited us to sleep in. Later there would be time to plan and play through the day. Later we would each find activities that would push back thoughts of the Labor Day Holiday that was both the advent of a new school year and the epitaph of summer.

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“I” Am Worthy

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Linda Jenkinson

Nodami, the Absurd Stranger stopped by and commented on my post about platitudes. The name of the blog was intriguing so I stopped by to see what an Absurd Stranger is. In one of the posts, Nodami quotes a passage from Ayn Rand.

“To say ‘I love you’ one must first be able to say the ‘I.’ “

The quote reminded me of a church retreat I once attended. Seated in a circle, each participant was asked to tell their neighbor to the right, “You are worthy of God’s love and grace.” Then each of us was asked to repeat the sentence to the neighbor on our left. You know, it’s as easy to say that to another person as it is to hear it coming from them. Both saying it to another and hearing it give you a warm, fuzzy kind of feeling. But the exercise wasn’t over.

Next, each participant was asked to repeat the sentence to their neighbors with one small change. We had to replace the words “You are” with “I am”. That warm, fuzzy quickly turned into a cold, prickly feeling for most of us as we each stuttered and stammered our way through the remainder of the exercise. Some of us, myself included, broke into tears at the sheer difficulty in saying, “I am worthy of God’s love and grace.”

I don’t have a “moral” to this story. Just that self-affirmation is very difficult for most of us. It’s easy to give a compliment; hard to accept one. Accept the fact that, whatever your faith, you are worthy of your God’s love and grace as well of the love and grace of those around you. You are worthy… and so am I.

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