Thursday, October 16, 2008

Gandhi Again--and a Thank You

One of the boldest and toughest bits of good advice I know, especially in a campaign season, is Gandhi's idea of working full-tilt and then, at the proper time emotionally letting go of the results.

In short: do the work and then step back.

I've written about this before here. I, for one, need to think about it again.

The campaign alone is causing me to throw down ridiculous numbers of snack-sized Three Musketeers. This is not helping anyone--outside of retailers and manufacturers of chocolate and I hope they appreciate my efforts. (I have a friend who is headfirst into not only chocolate, but butter-on-everything.)

Here's to giving one's best effort, alternating with periods of worry-free relaxing. It's not a bad time to start dividing the daffodils and such, for example. This is very good therapy for a cluttered head.

And now about the thank you. I want to say I appreciate the tolerance that non-Obama readers have shown here. I have been nigh-onto unrestrained in some of my political commentary. Y'all have handled my enthusiasm with considerable generosity. So I thank you for that.




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5 comments:

Janet Roper said...

Hi Peggy,
You're right. We do what we can, prepare the best we can and then go with the flow, knowing we have done the best we can. Thanks for sharing your terrific insights.
Harmony,
Janet

Diane Mandy said...

I found you BECAUSE of your political commentary and have enjoyed every minute of it!

Peggy Payne said...

Janet, thanks for your harmony.

And Diane, I appreciate your speaking up. I love your "make mine a double" philosophy (also I like being on your blogs-I-follow list). And I realized I've visited your blog before, but we hadn't "met." I'm sort-a envious of your expatriate life; that has always been my Plan C. (Plan B is Manhattan.)

About my political commentary--I don't plan to stop at all. I'm just impressed with the tolerance of any McCain supporter who visits here.

Debra said...

Peggy, I enjoy ALL of you. Passion in life is a very good thing, so when I see someone being passionate about something, I appreciate their vigor.

I can understand both sides of most issues, but I must admit that I support no one in this campaign. My husband is a small business owner and when I listen to Obama spout off about how he wants to tax us even more, I want to vomit. We employ fifty some-odd individuals. We pay worker's comp, social security, health and dental benefits. We are an above board small company and we pay a HUGE amount in taxes already. I cannot even begin to tell you. To think that Obama thinks that we should pay even more than we already are disgusts me. And he says it with a smug look on his face as if everyone should agree. I cannot support someone who feels that my husband should work even harder than he does to put even more money into someone else's pocket. Think about it. Most of the money that Obama wants to take by increasing taxes for the "rich" won't be coming out of the Exxon/Mobil companies. It will be coming out of the hard working pockets of men like my husband who built a business from scratch. How is that just?

I like you, I just don't like Obama. I do hope you can understand, too.

Peggy Payne said...

I sure do understand what you mean, Debbie, and I identify-- My parents owned a company of a similar size to your husband's. And I know about the pressures of payroll day.

My mother, the CFO, always said that if everybody had to write out a check for quarterly taxes that there would be a taxpayer revolt.

I run a (very)small business myself, in writing and consulting, and think of myself as pro-business.

And with that in mind, I'm voting for Obama. In part, because I've found that business is generally better and my taxes lower under Democratic administrations. I started observing this with Gerald Ford, who did me some substantial damage with changes in what I paid in social security. And so forth...

I don't like everything about Obama. Some of what he says about the mortgage business-- the "predatory lending"-- I take exception to.

At the same time, I think that overall he will do far better by by small businesses than McCain will. I see McCain as more run by the very largest corporate interests, which are good for so very few.

So, there's another soapbox speech. And I do entirely sympathize with your position. I really appreciate your writing about this here.






And I have a small business myself (though it's very small and won't