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We tend to focus on the current thing that is wrong. I do it too. When we do, sometimes it’s so big, everything else is on the other side. We can’t see those things at the moment. As the object moves away a bit (space and time), we begin to see those other things again, and it’s not so bad.

Health care, nation building..., sometimes we misdiagnose what the problem is. We read more into things before they are fully vetted.

If something comes out of the blue, it’s shocking. That initial shock can cause us to become befuddled for a bit. While that may sound like an insult, it’s just normal. Our minds focus on the important thing so much, that we can’t really figure out what the overall implications are/or aren’t. What do this really mean?

We have an accident. We think the whole world is going to explode. Three days later when the dust has settled, we’re in the rental car, the family is okay, and we’re off still enjoying life. In time things will be back to normal, and sometimes even better than normal.

Those of us who care about our nation, are quite focused on national and international dynamics. In many instances we can only assess what is taking place right now by looking at how things turned out in the past.

We were betrayed in the past. We think, well here we go again. That isn’t necessarily so. Actions may not mean what we think, and betraying may not be ahead. We have to keep cooler heads and see how it turns out.

Then if need be, we can go nuclear.

Trump has been a surprise to us since he first declared. I think he will continue to be. We are going to have to learn to judge him off him, not off others who have failed us.

Let it play out. See how it went. Assess if it’s really terrible if we only got 75% of the way there on an issue.

If we’re getting a lot of 100 percents on a myriad of issues, we can afford getting on 75% of the way there on a few, even some important ones.

There are two illustrations I would like to mention here. They are each something we have all experienced.

One

Once in a while I am involved in a project and need a tool, or an object that I at first thought would be best.

I go where that object should be, and look for it. While I’m looking I walk by or move something that would actually work much better. I’m so focused on find what I initially wanted, that I pass right by the better item. It wasn’t what I was looking for.

Then it dawns on me and I laugh at myself, pick up the better tool and take it back to the project and complete the task getting much better results.

This can happen with carpentry, meals, other special projects. It can happen in politics too. What we had planned on actually turns out better. There was no need to be upset we didn’t find what we initially looked for, or lament that we got to a better conclusion by an alternate route.

two

When I’m working on my budget, I sometimes juggle things for strategic reasons. At times there is a way I want to do things, and I can’t get that to work.

Should I let that get me down? Should I get angry and assume the worst? No, I should continue to look for a solution in more creative ways.

As I look for an alternative way to do it, I suddenly see a two pronged approach that will work to my advantage in ways I hadn’t seen before. It’s killer how that works at times.

In the end I don’t get upset because my first approach didn’t work. I feel happy that a better approach was revealed, and it all worked out better than I thought it could.

Trump’s plan

We have very a very certain picture of exactly how we want things to turn out related to health care. If it doesn’t look just like we imagined it, we know we’re going to be angry. Just the hint of that sets us off.

We don’t realize, that tweaking our perfect resolution, may actually be best overall financially.

So it may involve something we don’t like by 20%, but it may improve the overall effort by 50%.

We have to wait and see.

Trump is no fool, and thinking he is may be the quickest way to prove we are.

Let’s not be the Democrats trashing Trump, only to find out a few days or weeks later that he knew exactly what he was talking about all along.

We have to give the guy some room to wiggle, achieve what we want. It may look ugly at certain stages, but what counts is what we wind up with, and how that impacts our nation for the better or worse.