Statecraft Informer

It is December 26, and I’m on the road from here to there, in and out of my small Pacific coast city.

With me are Sam, Rusty and the Buster, quality dogs and boon companions.

There is work to do, errands to run, and rain is on the way.

Yesterday marked the finale´of the seemingly endless pre-Christmas shopping season, followed immediately by the post-Christmas, year-end, buying extravaganza.

I am surrounded by folks scurrying for sales, hung over from excess holiday spirit(s), begrudgingly (<—- isn’t that a funny looking word?) creeping back to whatever gainfully employs them (non-retailers will try and act busy through the rest of the week), and every once in a while, I see the face of someone who seems to have maintained a certain “wonderful time of the year” glow.

These are truly few and far between.

Whatever good will — toward men or women — the non-New Year holidays have wrought, appears to have peaked sometime late last night or early this morning.

Of course I can’t speak for all those with time off work or school, unless they’re out shopping. I will assume a goodly number of them continue to exhibit good “cheer,” or the good sense to stay in bed a little longer.

The newspapers and other media are rolling out “best and worst” and “top ten” lists.

I, too, may succumb to the urge and add my own tally in this space before 2006 fades away.

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year turned out to be you and me, or rather, YouTube, which may do to blogs like this one, what blogs like this one are doing to entity’s like Time Magazine.

It seems to me sweeping changes have become almost commonplace, and I find myself wondering if people have often thought the same thing about the times in which they lived.

The U.S. is going to stay the course, reverse course, or add another course to the sad, ill-prepared banquet which is Iraq.

Regardless, the future would appear as perilous as the past.

And if revenge truly is “a dish best served cold,” we best be considering where, when, and how the new anti-U.S. hatred will be made manifest in the years to come.

Better still, we might want to consider whether a different, more humane, honest and transparent policy approach would prove more successful at opening doors to freedom, than have our recent strategies.

It’s too bad the easier smiles, more ready displays of concern and congeniality have once again evaporated like so much mulled cider.

It’s too bad Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and every celebration of light, brotherhood and peace around the world are not observed every day.

It’s too bad the essence of light, brotherhood and peace at the core of every world religion, is not really incorporated into the daily living of their adherents.

It is December 26, and I’m reminded, as I often am, of words of wisdom from other turbulent times. These from a remarkable, though not particularly Christian, Benjamin Franklin:

“He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.”

It is December 26. Tomorrow is December 27.

Until we actually decide to put our principles into practice, and to practice principled public affairs on a regular basis, the calendar will merely reflect the most recent aprehension of astronomical reckoning.

Just another day.