Translating a World on the Edge

You know them. You’ve probably welcomed them into in your home: the painters, floorers, plumbers, electricians—all those who help to keep up the house in which you live.

Some of us try to do these tasks ourselves, and some of us know better than to try.  So, we call in the Restorers. Because we want order. Because we want things to work as they were made to work–and because we know what happens if we let it all go.

When the refrigerator goes out, the food goes bad. When the toilets stop up, the bathroom floods, and maybe even ruins the floors. When sparks come from an electrical socket,  fire is a definite possibility. No one can deny that these  problems need attention. No one can deny that to ignore them is foolhardy, even irresponsible. We must use our heads and solve the problem in our house.

But don’t we have another house for which We The People are responsible? And don’t we call her The United States of America? It’s my opinion, she’s in a problematic, even deadlocked, situation, especially when it comes to our ever-degrading culture. Many feel this deeply, and are attempting to right the wrongs. But most of us only comment and move on to something more pleasurable. We are not Restorers. Instead, we are letting our cultural problems go without doing much to fix them. In fact, some even believe our Country’s too far gone to fix at all. I don’t share that opinion.

When my children were little and complaining about a problem and how they couldn’t fix it. I usually sang them a few verses from the following children’s song about using commonsense. It makes a good point about those who are problem-solvers, and those who are not.

You’ll see the progression: Henry’s whining about all the reasons why fixing his problem with the bucket can’t be done, while Liza offers suggestion after suggestion as to how it can be done.