Go long

What you want most in life–what you really, really want–is not something you can get today on sale or shipped free in two days.

Some of the things you want–really, really want–cannot even happen when you are alive! The dreams and hopes you have for your grandchildren or great grandchildren may not come true until after you’re long gone.

I know you know all of this, if…

…you are a parent…

…you are a spouse…

…you are a professional of any kind…

…you are a disciple of a master at anything.

I wish more of my fellow citizens would know this about politics.

You know the ancient Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they shall never sit in.”

Trees grow slow and so do great societies.

Greatness does not happen with the election of one candidate over the other. Greatness does not happen with the passage of new laws.

A great society takes many generations of leaders–and followers–making many millions of decisions about how to be and what to do.

And the greatest society of all is one in which leaders set aside what they could gain for themselves now to make things better for those who are yet to come.

But people are impatient. We want what we want right now. It’s human nature in its most immature, raw form.

It is too easy for some political personalities to promise greatness now and without cost. People will follow political personalities like that.

Worse, still, are political personalities who say that greatness is the in past. That our society achieved the best that it could achieve long ago and that there is nothing more for which we need to stretch and strive. What we need to do, they say, is go back.

But loving and wise leaders–and loving and wise citizens–know that greatness is always out in front of us. So far in front of us that we may not live to see it. But we can plant the seeds of that greatness now for the generations that will follow. This takes faith, hope, and love.

Do we need to reform politics in the United States?

Yes, we do.

But politics is a reflection of the citizenship. Our politicians act out our best ideals or our worst impulses as citizens.

We the People need to renew our faith and hope in a greatness that we have yet to achieve. A greatness that is beyond our lives and yet worthy of all our effort to plant for future generations.

We the People need to renew our love for the American idea: That we will build a nation where liberty and justice is for all regardless of beliefs, birthplace, or blood.

And that means that We the People need to renew our love for each other and for those who want to get in on the good that past generations planted for us.

Anything worth having and passing on takes a lifetime and then some.

If we believe this, then doesn’t it mean we should stop listening to those who invoke “greatness” without talking about ideals and values and the sacrifices we have to make for them?

Doesn’t it mean we should recognize that we need to be kind and patient with each other?

Doesn’t it mean we should stop thinking about our own rights right now and start thinking about the rights we want to preserve for future generations?

Doesn’t it mean we should work as hard as we can to make our country a place of grace, where we can all work on the American experiment together?

Fellow citizen, make the choice to go long.