November 4th, 2008.

I will certainly remember this date for the rest of my life. For someone in my generation, the so called Generation X, it is one of the biggest historical days of my (our) life to this point. There have been a few monumental and unprecedented days/events; The impeachment proceedings against Clinton, the Oklahoma City bombing and of course, September 11^th, 2001. But, those all reflect the negative side of government, our country and our world. November 4^th, 2008 reflects the best of our people and our nation in a number of ways. It should, hopefully, change the world. (The fact that my children got to see it makes me smile ear to ear...they are young enough to at least "get" that it was a big day, but as they get older I will take huge satisfaction watching it really dawn on them.)

The obvious reflection of positive energy and historic significance is the election of a person that is not a white male. That’s history all by itself. But, beyond that, I’m talking about the reaction. This election night showed several positive and important things to me; John McCain’s concession speech, which was a touching mix of graceful defeat and positive response and support for his “former opponent.” I love those two words in his speech for their simple message that they are no longer opponents. The race is over and a great man, a great American and a great leader won the day. McCain put us on notice that he would be behind “his” President going forward. I sincerely hope those words ring true.

The other aspect of the night was the celebratory feeling the nation over. TV footage of happy crowds celebrating in the streets and parks of cities across America, of so many people of different ethnic backgrounds, genders and religious leanings shedding the same tears of joy. That look of pride on all those faces.

At the time of writing this, I have not heard of any bad occurrences, attacks, riots or any other sort of nonsense. Our country celebrated and got interested in its own political future in a way not seen in decades. I’m proud to be an American, always have been, as we showed the world that we can in fact come together and do something that was absolutely, unequivocally, out of the question just a matter of years ago.

We elected as our President, and by no small margin electorally, a black man whose middle name is Hussein. You don’t have to go back too far when in your very own mind, I’d guess you didn’t think it was possible.

I for one am thrilled that we have finally faced up to a barrier, two to a large extent, and gotten it, for lack of a better phrase, “out of the way.” Of course, the other barrier we approached was a viable, legitimate female candidate for the Presidency. Something else I think we need to “get out of the way” too. Based on this election, I think we can all see that it is absolutely possible to break that barrier as well. Yes we can.

Welcome to the history books of the future, the ink isn’t even dry and frankly, neither are my eyes.

JReed…Says Be Well.

Travel Log Day Two: Hard To Imagine...

Day two of the Hawaii trip was spent at Pearl Harbor...and as a self-titled history buff, it was beyond fascinating to me.
What struck me first was how somber we felt as soon as we got off the bus. There's something about that place that just levels you in terms of your view on life, courage, struggle and war in general.
While I've long known the dates, times, names and events of WWII, seeing the film and listening to the volunteer narrative prior to watching it, really brought it all home. What struck me the most was learning of all the survivors, who, upon their passing asked to be buried with their brothers underwater, back aboard the USS Arizona. I was not aware of that and it really hit hard, knowing that those men spent the rest of their lives as survivors, with what had to be absolutely vivid and horrid memories of that day etched in their minds. Memories of their ship, of how their lives and that of the nation and world, changed that day. Memories of their fellow sailors and Marines that died.
Their last request was to return to the Arizona and their names are etched at the memorial wall too...
After the film, we took the ferry boat to the memorial...it was something to see, all of these people looking around and taking pictures, but not really talking. There wasn't the usual touristy banter going on because the memorial is really an observational stand over a submerged graveyard.
When you look out at the ship below, there is still oil leaking up to the surface...that ship is still "alive" in the sense that you see it and see the little slicks of oil coming up, over 67 years after the fact.
You can also see the USS Missouri anchored just a few hundred yards away. The war with Japan started there and ended aboard the Mighty Mo. Full circle for us to see.
So there you are, in this paradise of a place, knowing that it was hell on earth that day.
If you've never been there, go. It is simply hard to imagine...

JReed...Says Be Well.

Hawaii Travel Log - Day One. So, what do you do?

Well, we flew from Eugene to Seattle, then Seattle to Honolulu on the 21st.
On the flight from SEA to HNL, a very nice and talkative man named Pat sat next to us.
Through the course of conversation, we got around to "So, what do you do?" The inevitable ice breaker topic on planes...we explained what we did, which until this conversation, seemed fairly interesting, then I asked Pat, "So, what do you do?" to which he replied, "I am a medical marijuana grower."
Uhhh, ok. That's a new one on us...it ended up being quite an interesting flight and Pat was, to say the least, chatty. By the 5th hour of the flight, I was ready to not talk or listen anymore to anyone, but I do have to say that Pat was a very nice guy with lots of colorful stories to tell. We saw a few pictures of his greenhouses, saw his license and discussed the difference between State and Federal law. I'm still not sure how it works, but we laughed a lot.
Once on the ground, we made our way via bus to Waikiki and checked in to our hotel. It is warm and sunny here, which makes it seem like a cool place to vacation. Worked nicely for us, being here on vacation and all.
As near as we could tell, wandering around the hotel and surrounding blocks, Korea has evacuated all of its teenagers. I assume there is some national teenager holiday or competition here, at our hotel, that has brought all 985,000 here. To say I am "out of touch" with Korean teenage life is an understatement, but they sure seem to have a nice time together. The boys all wear white shoes and jeans and have ratty/wild dyed-light-brown hair. The girls all wear white shoes and jeans and have ratty/wild dyed-light-brown hair, that is only slightly longer than the boys. And, they all smoke, a lot.
But I do like being around them because I feel like a giant. They are, no kidding, about 58% of my size and I'm not a very big guy. Actually I am a big guy, at least this week, in this hotel lobby.
To end the day, we had a nice sushi dinner, walked the famous Waikiki beach and turned in. Day two promises to be interesting, as we are headed for Pearl Harbor.

JReed...Says Be Well.

Meet Me In The Middle.

Center, middle, medium, moderation. These four words represent one guiding thought process, principle if you want to call it that, in my life.

Center, equidistant from two or more extremes.
How you stay in balance when you stand, the guy that snaps the football to get the play started. I think we all agree that being a "centered" person is best. Nobody likes to be around a person that is extreme in any one way.

Middle, equidistant from two or more extremes.
When you drive down the road, you keep your car in the middle of your lane to avoid collisions, leaving the roadway, signposts and other hazards. Reasonable approach to driving, that the vast majority of the time works out very well. The middle class can be argued as being the single biggest stabilizing factor for any country, politically and economically. By not just having a huge under class with a small top class, a country can enjoy economic growth and opportunity for its citizens. Middle...it is actually where it happens.

Medium, the average of two extremes.
When you are ordering something to eat or drink and you've either never tried it or are just not sure how much you want, you get a medium. Nice safe choice. If you don't specify how you want your steak, it will come out medium. Why? Because it will please the largest number of diners and represents the least risk to the restaurant and chef.

Moderation, not doing, taking, eating, drinking or acting in any extreme manner.
"All things in moderation." It seems to be human nature to react to something bad by stopping it altogether, or to something good by going full tilt with it. Diets are a great example. Carbs aren't bad, but lots of carbs are. Meat isn't bad, but eating huge amounts of it is. Sugar isn't bad, but consuming lots of it certainly is. Heck, you can even take too many vitamins.

I happen to believe that politics and an approach to government and dealing with a large, complex society like ours is no different. All things in moderation is a very good way to enjoy what you want, without creating problems or having to go extreme measures to undo what was done.

I am asking you to meet me in the middle. There is a LOT of room as our country is practically a 50/50 split between the two extremes.

I am willing to bet that there are far more people in this country whose approach to life and their belief systems are somewhere in this vast middle ground. I for one cannot say I support either of our two big political parties completely. I don't agree with every single plank in their platforms but I sure do agree with quite a few in each. So what does that make me? I think it makes me a person with his own thoughts and ideas, that recognizes different situations require different approaches and there is no one blanket school of thought that can handle everything.

I'm not saying that I'm right about everything, but I can say that when I have in fact aligned myself with one party, I immediately start struggling with certain items or beliefs of that party. I've been a Democrat, I've been a Republican, I've gone independent. I can't find a political home. I don't think I'm alone.

Let's start a movement back to the middle.

You don't HAVE to choose one side or the other...think about who it is that is telling you that you have to? Those two sides. They want and need us to pick a side in order to maintain their power and control. It is probably the one thing that they all secretly agree on: Keep them divided and keep the gap close, then we will ALL maintain our power and wealth.

A final thought about that: When there is a coin toss, you're told to pick heads or tails. Pick one side of the coin. You feel like you have a choice, but in fact, even though there are two sides of a coin, in political terms, it is still just two sides of the same coin.

Over time, I'll be posting a lot more about this particular topic because I truly believe that as an approach to politics, particularly in our current "environment" today, it is really the only way to a better life, a better country and a better future.

JReed...Says Be Well.

Travel Log - The Beginning.

Lot's of people have travel goals and I am no different. My first, and still biggest, travel goals is to get to all 50 states. I have reached 46 of them and have plans this month to get to Hawaii and Alaska. That leaves only 2 remaining...Arkansas and Vermont.

With a huge, interesting and diverse world to see, why make the 50 states the first priority? Several reasons. This is my country and I want to see it and meet people from all over. That will allow me to really form an opinion on different states, regions, etc from experience, not from just what I see on the news or read on the Internet. I want to be able to tell my children from first hand experience some facts and thoughts on their country and set a positive example on the importance of perspective.

I am happy to say that even at 8 and 7 years old, my two children are in the double digit range of states visited. It is my goal to impart on them a sense of travel for experience and also for the same sense of what people are like, first hand, that I am seeking for myself.

I look forward to reporting from the road, taking lots of pictures, meeting lots of people and getting a real sense of what is going on, from the source, not from the Internet or the news. Not that I will stop taking info from those sources, I will just supplement them with my own real-life experiences.

If you're in to travel, if you have recommendations of things to see, places to go, or even places and things to avoid, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for reading.

JReed...Says Be Well.

Is There Such A Thing As Car Trouble?

Ok, as Americans, pretty much everybody owns a car or three. It is part of our culture and particularly for those of us on the West Coast, our infrastructure is set up for driving.

Everyone has had "car trouble" at some point. I know I have...and as a matter of fact, am right now. But, as I sit here waiting for the tow truck, it occured to me that is it really car trouble? Cars aren't alive, they can't cause trouble. They work until something breaks, which it will. Everything breaks down at some point.

In our society, when a car breaks down, we get ticked at the car. We curse it out, blame it for causing so much trouble, making us late, inconveniencing US! The nerve of that fairly complex, human designed, human operated inanimate object, to ruin OUR day!

My car is 9 years old and has about 135,000 miles on it. I am the only owner, ordered it from the factory in November of 1999, shortly after my oldest child was born. It broke down this morning, just wouldn't start. My oldest child is in 3rd grade. Pretty good run I think.

I looked through my service records and figured that I've spent about $2000 in repair work over the life of the car. Roughly $225 a year. It was a company car that I then bought from the company about 5 years ago. So that makes it about $400 or so a year since I've owned it. That is a car payment of $33 a month.

My car doesn't cause me problems, it gets me where I need to go day in and day out. It has officially "stranded" me 3 times in 9 years, for a total inconvenience factor of about 9 days. That means it has worked 364 days a year, all for the bargain price of $33 a month. I spend more on Starbucks and it has never taken me anywhere.

Celebrate your car, change the oil regularly, drive as little as you can.

JReed...Says Be Well.

You Have To Start Somewhere...

We've all heard the saying many times, "Everyone has to start somewhere." Well, you are here at the start of my foray in to blogging. I guess I realized if I didn't give it a try, my children would beat me to it. They are 8 and 7.

I'm honestly not sure exactly what I'm going to write about or if anyone will read it...if anyone does, will they find it entertaining and worth coming back for more? Only time will tell, but everyone has to start somewhere.

JReed...Says Be Well.