Dr. Forbush Thinks

Some vacations are dedicated to travel. Some vacations are dedicated to visiting family or entertaining family. Some vacations are dedicated to celebrations. Some vacations are dedicated to doing nothing at all, but my most recent vacation was different.

I tend to be a very reflective person. People don’t generally tend to share their personal reflections, mainly because truthful personal reflections tend to reveals flaws in the way a person is living their life. People don’t like to admit to flaws, personal flaws, character flaws, family flaws or national identity flaws. Admitting to a flaw requires change, and change requires work. People generally don’t like making more work for themselves than they already have. Admitting to a flaw requires making a difficult change that may be more difficult than is expected, and committing to that change may result in another failure - the failure to change an admitted flaw. This is all tough stuff and it can too easily reveal weakness.

Reflection does not always needs to be so difficult. Some reflections are much easier. Obvious reflections often result in obvious resolutions. New Years is the traditional time in our culture to pledge the obvious changes. We don’t need deep reflections to pledge to lose weight or eat healthier. Surface reflections in a wall mirror are often enough to show these flaws. Since these flaws are also shown publicly, they can not be hidden, so people find it much easier to pledge to reform these flaws, and accept failure to reform as well.

My recent vacation was a reflective vacation. I looked at myself, my family and my nation. What was different than my normal reflective actions was that I didn’t immediately write down my reflections at every thought. Instead, I thought and reflected without an immediate response. The only writing that I did over my entire vacation was in response to a blog on one’s innate ability to distinguish between “good” and “evil.”

What was strange was that I didn’t jump to conclusions or come to an immediate opinion on some of the big news stories over the last two weeks. And, there were several interesting events that deserved comments: The death of President Ford, the death of Saddam Hussein, the changes in laws that went into effect on January 1, 2007 and several other important events. The problem is that I have “hard wired” responses to ingrained in my psyche to these events, and I believe that some of these events might deserve more than a “hard wired” reflexive response. I began to think about why my reflective response was the way that it was. Why did I respond the way that I did on an emotional level? And, most importantly, was my reflexive response a fair response, or should I have considered something else that I hadn’t considered?

It isn’t like I was going to change my whole political outlook by reflecting on these major political events. But, I also know that it is quite dangerous to have an automatic response to any major event of any kind. After all, we should be well aware that the automatic response of our politicians after 9/11/2001 has damaged the reputation of the United States in the view of the wider world. Perhaps if our politicians had not been so automatic we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in today. Perhaps the lack of reflection of our politicians should be a lesson for us to keep at heart. And, perhaps I need to continue to reflect on why I think about the world the way I do.

I hope that I will eventually write about the presidency of Gerald Ford and the revenge killing of Saddam Hussein. I certainly have a piece in mind about the minimum wage increase here in California, and some of the stupid laws that just went into effect on January 1, 2007. I still have my opinions, which my reflections have re-affirmed. I have also begun thinking about the problems we face in Iraq regardless of whether we should be there or not. I can’t really say that my mind has changed much, even though I believe that I have honestly reflected on many of the facts, opinions and ideas that others have about these things. I have read and reflected on many of the conservative writings on these things that I may not have dealt with as fairly as I should have in the past. I watched and interesting round table debate last night on what it means to be an American that included the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. I can’t say that I was comforted by his opinion on this subject, but at least I know how this very important person feels about this very important subject. In fact, I wasn’t comforted by many of the things I read by those on the right side of the political spectrum.
The interesting thing about this reflection was that I realized that some of my opinions may have been a bit exaggerated. I have found that there are conservatives that I have disagreed with in the past who are not as crazy as I once thought. These people have voiced sanity in the face of the extremes of some of the lunatics out there. I found that there are moderates on the right side of the political spectrum. I also found that there are also extremists on the left side of the political spectrum. I had known this, but after spending the last three years fighting the extremists on the right it is important to remember this fact.

The most important thing about my personal refection is that I need to remember the perils of not reflecting on what people are saying before constructing an automatic response. These automatic responses may be used against us as they have been in the past. And, these automatic responses may be one of the fearsome dangers that we all face and ironically all have the power to control.





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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


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Reflection