I don't usually post serious stuff on here because I'm usually not serious. (This is a new thing to say about myself, as I've always considered myself super-serious. But I really don't think I am anymore.) But the news cycle of the last few days has had me thinking about the perilous times we're in. Not that we are in more or less peril than other times -- I'm no judge of that -- but I've been thinking about how we Americans have been tightrope-walking without a qualm for years...and now we're having qualms left and right. I'm not naive enough to think that such qualms have never occurred before in the world, but I'm wondering how we are going to meet the challenge of these times. They say what you do in the little things is an index of what you'll do in the big things, and when I look at myself, I think the little things have often got me down. Being late for work, spilling my drink, having to wait in a long line, photocopying something wrong and having to start over -- I get flustered and defensive and apt to pass the blame, or invoke martyrdom by heavily blaming myself. Is this what I'll do in a real crisis? Oh, God, I hope not. So my resolution -- my beginning contribution to the war effort -- is to be on the lookout for the terrorists of my mind: whining, chronic dissatisfaction, impatience with myself, fear of imperfection, dishonesty.... Victory starts between the ears.

How's that for a stump speech?