Things Have certainly Changed

I remember when I was about thirty, single and took a long winter vacation stopping in L.A., two weeks in Hawaii and back to San Francisco on to New York. The year was 1980 and my costs were around $800. To be fair, I took my meals in Chinatown in Honolulu. I brought my guitar and conducted sing a longs with the other passengers on the flights. Going to the Pacific, the stewardesses dressed in moo moos and local Hawaii music blared into the cabin. The girls did the hula for us. I did not know about laptops, Smartphones, Apps or wide screen TV's then. I did not follow financial markets or text anyone either. I had the time of my life. The food was authentic South Pacific and everybody was happy, laughing and in a state of Nirvana. I hung around with the flight attendants at the meal station and probably could have got a date. My vacation was relaxing with that huge mall out there and the spot where Gilligan's Island was filmed was right at my fingertips. L.A was topped with me at the Troubadour watching one of Elton John's first appearances in America. San Francisco was affordable grand cuisine and beautiful colored real estate.

I am 62 now but when I think back to that earlier trip I can only compare to what we are facing today in our speedy lives. Things have certainly changed. 

Do you have the sequester blues as some Americans are now experiencing? After all, man in the street interviews show that so many of us do not understand the process or simply are putting the entire matter by the wayside. Despite dire and dismal predictions, we are not experiencing anything of the same immediately. No reason to over look the sequester though. It seems to me like it is a slow trickle but there are cutbacks happening now in the way of furloughs and visitor services around the country. When the elephants dance, the mice scatter. This recovery is painful enough when you consider the three job scenario, part time hiring and layoffs all over. Heaping more sour news is not going to cure our deficit or help the economy. Remember what I said about the elephants, gloom and doom and lack of consistent and enduring outreach on both sides are going to have to happen for our success. Trying to win distant elections does not help matters either. I am assuming that cuts will continue and be more and more painful and man in the street interviews will then become more realistic. We have to get together on repairing this nation and think of all those now affected. It is almost as if even the rich are hurting. They also are dancing elephants. Squeeze them and you do not get a big return just more little guys scattered. All this as we wade through healthcare and international perplexities. Also, remember if you will that the stock market goes up, but it also goes down. A long term approach to current euphoria.