There have been songs on the subject.
Some changes are surely better than others. Some worse.
Change can't be stopped, but surely it can be managed, tailored, if a society so desires. Change can be big, and hard to miss. It can also be small, hardly noticeable until one day it's just there and you wonder how it all came about.
Of late, I've become interested in vintage tins. Yes, no question it's a sign of my own aging. Whether it was 'Antiques in the Attic' or 'Antiques Road Show' years ago, or 'American Pickers' now, I think we have a natural curiosity to wonder if something lying around the house might be worth a lot of money. Or, maybe just more than we'd initially suspect. It's been around a while, after all, it's got to be. What seems junk in the here and now always seems to be worth something later. I used to scold my mother for being a bit of a pack rat. Now, I wish she'd stored away more, it was still there to be rediscovered, enjoyed. Turns out it's not just 'stuff', but often times our history, both individually and all together.
These wonderful tins I've become interested in, developed an admiration and appreciation for, well, they're sort of amazing. Beautiful. So many produced for selling candy and cookies. Yeah, candy and cookies. So much time and effort to design, so much color and thought behind a landscape, a pattern. We've lost a lot of appreciation for real beauty, I think. A rush for this, a time table for that, we have to have it tomorrow because we needed it yesterday. The time and effort put into a candy tin once, it's symptomatic of much else, I believe. Often when a society, a culture, a world loses an appreciation for one thing, when you notice it, its a small piece of a larger puzzle. Life, love, relationships, perhaps much connected to something as simple as a candy tin. Lost, now missed and communicating -- whether intentionally or not -- something about us, the people who made the things, appreciated them and now make them no more.
A man who's often chastised in our society for his commentary on what we have lost, what we may be losing is Rush Limbaugh. In my opinion, his simple eloquence on what has made us great, how we could be greater, and what we still are losing is unmatched. If America has a voice of its national conscience, in my opinion, it would be him. His is the sort of common sense appreciation of America which is as simple, real and beautiful as the tins I've come to appreciate. I often wish more Americans listen to Rush, someone who speaks so eloquently of this country, possibly helping them better understand just how fortunate they are, instilling, reigniting in them that they can still be all that they can be as long as they have the freedom to do so. We have so many supposed leaders in this country who love to tell us why we can't and shouldn't, which makes it that much nicer to have someone like Rush who explains to us why we still can for ourselves, individually.
I listen to him religiously. One day, sometime over the last several years, he went off on an impromptu monologue as only Rush can do. He spoke of our society in soaring, yet somewhat regretful terms. I think it may have been around the time of the collapse of General Motors. He spoke of innovation and dreams, of appreciation and commitment, of an American spirit which saw nothing out of reach. He spoke of Americans' love of automobiles, of flying, of creating and inventing things and then MAKING them. No one speaks of this country with such a natural, easy and beautiful flow. I think it's because he so feels it, believes it, has experienced and seen it. It would be wonderful to have leaders who did such again.
But that, for now, may be lost, like these amazing, beautiful tins.
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