The rhetoric of our discontent.

The recession rhetoric is coming to a head again. The Labor Department figures came out this past week that 159,000 jobs were lost in September and the unemployment rate is now at 6.1 percent.

I assume that there will be more jobs lost and that there will be more lead stories on newscasts about how bad things are. I assume that there will be a multitude of analysts with opinions about who is to blame.

In addition to all the hard luck stories about retailers hurting for sales and consumers suffering because they will not be able to afford Christmas, there will be a lot of depressing rhetoric stories that will not accomplish anything but fill airtime and irritate and depress people.

Republicans will blame Democrats. Democrats will blame Republicans. Third party candidates will blame the two-party system. The hope is that enough people will buy into someone's argument to vote.

I do not think that everything is Republican or Democrat. When it comes to who is at fault for the recession, the answer is: everyone, but does it really matter? A recession will come around in 2018 or 2019—the economy goes in cycles.

Nevertheless, politicians have a tendency to blame the other party for recessions. It is blame for a political purpose in the here and now.

As it seems to me, political rhetoric in our day and age serves political purposes such as good sound bytes, and zingers to embarrass the other party. I am struggling to recall when rhetoric actually did something good.

Nevertheless, it is the way it is. It is also the way it is that the news media will continue to cover it as a news substitute.

Rhetoric is timeless. It has been around forever. People have been making cheesy and stupid arguments forever.

Rhetoric is someone's argument for some purpose. While it sounds logical, I tend to turn it off. Rhetoric is a form of logic, but it is of little substance. I tend to be rather dismissive of such office conversations around political rhetoric.

Rhetoric is a substitute for real stuff happening. It is like the non-dairy cheese or the non-dairy coffee creamer. Staying in touch with the political rhetoric does not seem to mean actual political knowledge.

There is actually little to know about news events. Rhetoric seems to puff things up to larger than necessary size.

Rhetoric in our current day is usually shallow. It is attached to passion and emotion. Again, it is of little substance so the emotion has to be there to carry it and make it seem like there is something there.

Because of its passion and emotion and shallowness, it is also nebulous. Try to narrow a politician on what they will precisely do in response to the sky falling, and you will likely get them to verbalize an enigmatic and obscure answer about some governmental action that is imprecise and incomprehensible.

You will regret you even asked 99 percent of the time.

Rhetoric usually works best in large groups of people already of the same opinion. Otherwise, rhetoric rarely convinces the other side to go along.

Rhetoric may lead to a “tit for tat” response that gets plays out in news stories and media pundit shows at night. I call this political drama. Some call it “mudslinging” where you are attempting to make the opposition look dirty.

Political drama is essentially wrestling in that gussied up pig sty called the political area. Again, it is stressful to watch, listen to, and read.

Concretely, coping for me in this time means limiting my news intake. Yes, I am currently looking through a “Time” or “Newsweek” and then reading the paper daily.

I look at Drudge Report online at least once a day. I will also listen to the news on the radio.

I just cannot watch morning news shows such as “CNN morning” or “Fox and Friends.” They sit and continue to perpetuate political drama at this time.

One other thing that works is to remind me that rhetoric is just people's opinions. Some opinions are going to be significant and others are going to be insignificant.

For example in today's democratic response to the president's weekly radio message, Ohio Governor Strickland, a Democrat, blamed the Republicans for the economy. Big whoop. (The fairness doctrine gets abused way too much.)

When President Bush or some other nationally prominent Republican blames Republicans for the economy then it is news. Likewise, if a prominent Democrat blames the Democrats for something, then it too will be news that will get my attention.

I guess the other coping issue is “discernment” of rhetoric. I aim to be a person of substance. I aim to discern when something or someone is real.

When someone is using lots of emotion and little specificity in their criticisms or judgments of someone or something, it is rhetoric. Once I hear the nebulousness and the vagaries, I usually turn it off.

You and I will not be able to escape the rhetoric that will be coming in the months to come. It will be everywhere. My message to myself and others is to practice discernment and turn it off as soon as I assess that it no longer has any value.

Vacation or No Vacation?

Memphis--
I am writing from a moderate-priced hotel in the east end of the city. It was a small but tough decision as to whether or not on vacation given the economic environment and gas prices.
When the air conditioning broke and it cost almost $180 to fix, again, it was a tough decision whether or not to go on vacation? But we decided to go since a friend who lives five hours in another direction is going to meet us here tonight.

It is now on the backside of the short vacation. We went to Graceland and took the medium price tour—which means we saw his grave, got to go into his plane and see his cars. I saw some of the weirdest things to be branded with Elvis's image and name. We went to Beale Street and ate at B.B. King's restaurant (strawberry preserves on Fried Green Tomatoes was quite interesting). We went to the Sun Records Studio. We had some BBQ (barbecue/barbeque) at Corky's. We head home tomorrow.

We got a picture of all of us in front of Graceland. We got a picture of the kids by Elvis's music note on Beale Street. (Hollywood has stars—Beale Street has musical notes in the pavement.)
While this is not meant to be a commercial for Memphis, the point is we did stuff as a family. My wife and I took our kids to see things that we value and wanted to see.

We made memories in a worthy place for memories. At the end of the day it was cool to have a conversation with my five-year-old son about our favorite parts of the Graceland tour.

Well, like many people's vacation, this was one where we are putting balances on credit cards. I have a plan for paying them off. The assumptions of the plan are: 1.) my job is secure, 2.) the central air conditioning continues to work, 3. nothing else major breaks down and 4.) the cars don't break down.

Number four is looking shaky. The 8-year-old car that we have is quite dependable but the computer said to check tire pressures. Well I did this morning and took them all up to 41 PPS again this afternoon the same light came on as we headed back to hotel. I checked them again and they are back down to 35 PPS

I will check tire pressures again tomorrow and add air—worst case scenario means new tires—something I am not thrilled about. But if you own a car, you will need to maintain it.

Am I glad we have taken this mini vacation. Yes. There is a time where one must take risks.

There are some moments in times that will not come back. My kids are only going to be young once. While I would like to take them exotic places and have the best accommodations, I am like most people—I work for a living and we can afford what we can afford.

I think that at the end of this, life is a balance between risk and no risk. The miserly side of me said that this was a foolish thing, but then the other side of me said to seize the day. The conversation with my five-year-old last night about Graceland was worth it even in the midst of unsure economic times and high gas prices.

Vacation or no vacation? It was tough for me. It may be tough for you. It is okay if your better side says to do a "stay-cation." If you stay, just make some memories.

What a recession teaches us.

Forgive me if this sounds too much like a long platitude, but I offer thoughts that have no easy answers, but I think I have an idea where the answers are. There are no freebies—the answers for me are not necessarily the exact answers for you.

A recession is a time of depression and suffering. It is like a warped or evil holiday season that goes on and on and on beyond January 1 where the music does not stop, the decorations are still up and the holiday food has gone rancid. Even if someone is doing just fine economically and is not directly affected by the economic downturn, there is the tendency to be depressed in some form because of the nature of empathy and the pervasive nature of a recession.

Empathy is that ability to feel what other people are feeling. It is somewhat of a spiritual concept because it is a connection that we make with people. We feel the pain in a recession as it is reported on the TV, in the newspapers and magazines, church sermons, and the tales of others.

There is almost an addiction or compulsion or obsession to talk about the recession on TV. (Pain is one of the underlying factors of addiction and compulsion.) It is almost like the air around us. It is like a 90-degree day with 60 percent humidity that lasts for months where we are uncomfortable and cannot get relief.

Although things may actually be going better for some of us, we feel the pain because the recession is spoken of everywhere all the time. It monopolizes our senses and feelings and we are overwhelmed. A recession can have the same effect of “job burnout” on people where we are tired all the time, we do not perform well, and we need a break.

We do not want pain. Pain is a sensation that tells you that something is wrong. We as human beings want to avoid pain. Me included. The irony is that we cannot avoid it during a recession. We have to feel it as part of this existence called life and it teaches us intangibles that we can listen to or repeat the pain all over again because we did not get the lessons the first time.

The recession of 1991-1992 was a time of pain that taught me a lot. I was 26. I had a masters degree and I was not finding a job in my chosen field. I was driving a school bus and I was trying to sell cellular/wireless phones when they were still a high-ticket item and the airtime minutes were outrageously expensive. Few people wanted wireless phones during that time because they were a luxury. I learned about what a shyster the guy I was working for was—what was I thinking?

I was living essentially hand to mouth and month to month at that time. I found that I was not going to get a job in the area of my masters. I was not going to get a job in the field of my undergraduate degree either. I found myself feeling pretty stupid for my education choices as they were dead-ends at the time.

I had many thoughts and feelings. I was frustrated. I was ashamed. I was in a wilderness. I was in a desert of paradox: I was not where I wanted to be but I could not really tell where I wanted to be.

The first lesson that we learn from the pain of the recession is we learn where it is that we do not want to be. We learn the consequences of choices from frustration and shame. Two questions we do fear are: What do you do for a living? Tell me about yourself? Another question we don't want to have to answer is: Now why did your last job end?

We learn what it is that we value. I learned to value that I needed to find a profession that was practical and more recession-proof, while still finding a job that was significant and meaningful. Many of us will have to settle for not so glamourous jobs that are part of the regular grind and find our meaning and significance elsewhere outside of work.

The pain of a recession can also teach us simplicity. The United States is such a complicated culture where many luxuries have become essentials. While cable or satellite television is a nice convenience, they are necessities in the eyes of many. Eating out is as much a matter of convenience and prestige, but eating at home gets us by just fine—although my steak on my grill does not taste as good as the steak at the restaurant. We get back in touch with what it is that we need and do not need.

I think I learned simplicity. I had food and shelter. I had what I needed from day to day. Of course it would have been nice to have cable and the ability to go out, but my life did not end without those things. I learned how very little I really needed compared to what I thought I needed. I learned that in a sense we all live day by day even though we have huge plans for what the future should be like. It was a painful lesson.

The pain of a recession includes acquainting us with our vulnerability and learning to cope with it. There is power in having money in your pocket. You also may have had the confidence that if you have to incur debt with your credit card you can pay it off ( and won't default on your account because you can make the monthly minimum). With recessions, the money is not in our pocket and we think twice about the debt. I learned to be respectful of debt and to work to live more within my means.

We can become mindful that we too are vulnerable, and it can lead to dwelling on the worst possible things that can happen to us? Panic attacks are not uncommon as a body cannot only take so much anxiety. A panic attack is the fight or flight response jacked up a couple of notches where the anxiety comes out physically in an intense form that mimics a heart attack.

I think I came to be in touch with my vulnerability. I think that the people who deny that they are vulnerable are more likely to have panic attacks than those who accept that everyone is vulnerable in some way. I learned that other people were vulnerable too.

Pain and suffering also teaches character. My nice but sometimes misguided mother believed in “sanding” of people where the rough edges are taken off. A like analogy is “trial by fire.” We can be like gold purified by fire. The stuff that is not gold floats to the top. (Of course there are more profane things that are said to float to the top—but the effect is still the same—it is somewhat of a sifting process.)

I think I learned character. I had to be me. I had to be who I was. It really did not matter that I had a master's degree or that I had an internship where I did some really bad morning newscasts on morning TV as a college student. It was humbling because the things I had put stock in meant nothing—during the recession it was all about who I was in the moment in relationships. Who I was . . . was all I had.

There was an end to my recession. In 1992 I headed to another city with my family's help to begin another master's degree that has been my profession since. I learned that recessions do end.

I saw that the vast majority of people kept things together in a recession. While there is always the possibility that someone can wind up sleeping in their car because they are out in the street, it really is because their judgment is so extremely poor that they do so many stupid things. While jobs do get lost and mortgages get foreclosed on, cable and Internet gets turned off, people do figure out a way to keep roofs over their heads and food on the table. (The black and white thinking is what makes people think that all is going to be lost.) Keep your head on, and make careful, conservative choices and your odds begin to increase dramatically that you will be ok.

In a grand sense, there was meaning in my suffering--it had purpose and made me better. I was not looking for the lessons. They were all after-thoughts. They did not all strike me at one time nor did they strike me like lightning. The lessons were quiet that came in bits and pieces. I found myself praying many, many times a day for grace. Am I a better person because of my suffering? Yes I think so?

Does it matter to the people I know that I have had these lessons? They probably could care less because they are all busy with their own lives. However, it does matter to me because I live within my skin and know my own thoughts, and I am more at peace because of those lessons.

Some people will never learn these lessons. That is sadly also the pain of living this life, but again that is life.