The More Things Change

Sometimes here at WIDWINW, we stop to appreciate serious things.

In this case, some words ring true across generations.

An excerpt from FDR's first inaugural speech:

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

--

Here, here.

Here's To Something New

I sit here typing this dispatch from Olympia, Washington, on the verge of a ten day silent retreat.

For the next several hundred hours, I'll be a few miles off of I-5, meditating and delving into something new. I could elaborate, - and I plan to - but I must hit the road.

I'm excited. I'll be back shortly to tell you how it went.

Planking Across America: Like Son, Like Father, Like Father, Like Son

It's good to be back. Since I left you, a lot has happened, as things often happen when you are gone.

In something of an 11th hour decision, my father, Sam, decided to join me for arguable the final stretch of this little vision quest. Following a weekend at the GABF in Denver with Nick and Brian (more to come on that), I picked Pa up at the airport and we made our way north and west through the splendor of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

And, as we're cut from the same cloth, we got some quality father-and-son planking done along the way. Griswolds united, we plank in Wyoming and lovely Coeur d'Alene, WA:

Planking Across America

Testing the waters for Pa

Looks like the plank doesn't fall far from the plank! Natural.

Local Native American creation myth holds that Raven planked a glacier, and Lake Coeur d'Alene was formed. Beautiful.

"Daddy, why is Grandpa planking those stairs so majestically?"

Caution: No lifeguard on duty, plank at your own risk.

An evening of whimsical planking turned tragic when a sculpted buck appeared out of nowhere.

And we're spent. Mein Gott, planks the likes of these have ne'er been wrought upon the land. The Father, the Son, and the "Holy Ghost, That's A Tremendous Plank"!!!

I'd like to dedicate this special experience to both of my parents, Sam and Patty Griswold. What can be said about parents? Not nearly enough. But I'll endeavor an attempt: I owe them everything. Limitless love and thanks, folks: this planks for you.