Change

Life for me lately has been about change.

My husband, daughter, and I have moved to a new and very different neighborhood. We had lived in our former house in an older part of town for twenty-seven years. We are now living in a newer part of town, in a rather suburban area. I had lived in the older part for most of my life, even in the same immediate neighborhood. We, however, are still in the process of moving.

I have also gotten a new computer, a laptop, and am getting used to the new machine and its mouseless touchpad. Additionally, I am acquiring a new e-mail program. I had the old e-mail since I started using a computer. It was when my twenty-five-year-old son was a freshman in high school, I believe, that we got our first machine. These both, the new computer and the new e-mail, require learning.

I have written before that I now have a grandson. He is two months of age now. This has been a new experience. My grandson has brought my family back together. He has reconciled my daughter with her brother. This has been very helpful, not least because my son has been helping us in our moving.

In the religious arena, I have acquired a new faith, Unitarian Universalism, by joining the Unitarian Universalist Community of Frankfort. After being a lifelong Episcopalian this is quite a different experience. Their bumper sticker says, “Be U at UUCF” and this has been true for me. I do feel at home, even though it is a new one.

On the national scene, we have acquired a new president in the last year. In some ways, he has been like a breath of fresh air. Some of the change has been nice. However, in the realm of foreign policy, there has not been near enough change for me.

I am convinced that this nation needs a complete turnabout in our foreign policy. Hegemony and imperialism need to be out. We need to learn that war is not the way to peace. (I do not believe I am naïve.) I am glad that we are primed to get out of Iraq, though I am sorry we are to leave residual forces there. We need to leave Afghanistan, too. Our presence and actions in the Middle East and in Afghanistan and Pakistan are deadly and destabilizing. I believe that we, including President Obama and Congress, too, need to wake up, smell and drink the coffee, take courage, and change.

We need to wholly accept the other nations and peoples of the world. They are not evil. They are worthy (regardless of what some think) and they have minds and hearts. It is time to learn new ways of being in the world. We can.