Speechless

Sometimes it is better to say nothing than to say anything.

Words have consequences.  If you call your boss an idiot, you may get fired, or at the very least, marginalized.

If you shout at a driver in a car that has cut you off or made it impossible for you to merge into a lane of traffic, you invite road rage.

If you raise your voice with your child, you’re making the kind of memories that may require years of therapy to undo – for both of you.

And if you argue with your spouse in a mean-spirited way, you can leave bruises on your heart.

Yesterday, a very close friend and I sparred – at times angrily – over the truly harsh invective, abdication of responsibility and lack of leadership on the part of our federal government and its representatives.  Before our “discussion” spun out of control, we took a breath, walked our comments back a bit (but not a lot), then agreed to disagree so we could go about our business for the rest of the day.  Although my friend and I have often viewed politics in very different ways, our 2-decade old relationship matters to us both so we try not to test it too often.

Now I’m not Queen of the World, or even mistress of my own destiny most of the time…but I do know that sometimes you have to put the rhetorical bullshit aside to move head and get the task at hand done.  You don’t always like the job you are given to do, or the person you are doing it with or for, but there you go -- that’s life.  And no one ever said it was going to be easy. 

It’s time for our elected officials to put the rhetorical bullshit aside and do the job we sent them to do, as distasteful as it may seem to many of them:  to protect and defend this great country by serving our collective interests through compromise and commitment to the greater good.

There is dangerous kabuki theatre playing out in our nation’s capital this month, and I pray to God cooler heads prevail.  Until then, I guess I’ll remain, like many of you, speechless.  For now.