In remembrance

We all do better when we all do better. The man to whom I attribute that saying died 20 years ago today. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would come to miss and remember Senator Paul Wellstone with the same kind of respect as I do for Jack and Bobby Kennedy. I’m a native Bostonian so that’s a lot of respect.

Something I haven’t thought much about until recently is the message Wellstone’s saying delivers about the kind of universe in which we live and how we can best deal with each other in that universe.There are two ways to approach any interaction (“deal”) between two or more parties. It can either be crafted as a “win-win” or structured as a “win-lose.” Obviously, if we’re all going to do better, we all need win-win deals, right? Then why aren’t there more politicians like Paul Wellstone?

Are you ready to vote?

Photo by J. Harrington

Could it be that too many of those asking for (demanding?) our votes see the world as a win-lose place. In order for me to win, my opponent(s) must lose. One way we could all disabuse such politicians of such misguided approaches to serving the country and representing constituents is to refuse to vote for such candidates. How about a ban on supporting those who run, promote and/or pay for attack ads? Or do we all hold such a low opinion of those who claim to represent us that we see nothing wrong with attack ads. And what does that say about us?

There’s another old saying that captures my philosophizing today. It comes from sports. You know, contests in which  there are winners and losers on the field. That saying is “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” (Grantland Rice)

If we get the government we deserve, and we want better government, what if we worked to elect more Senator Wellstones and see what we think of the results? Maybe that’s as old fashioned as today’s poem.

If—

Rudyard Kipling - 1865-1936

If you can keep your head when all about you
   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
   And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
   If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
   And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
   Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
   And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
   And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
   And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
   Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
   Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
   If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
   Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

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