THURSDAY, JANUARY 8BARACK OBAMA, soon-to-be-president of the United States is already making me proud that I was among the citizens of this country who elected him to lead our still-great nation. As I listened and watched his address to the nation on the current economic crisis (actually, directed more at Congress than to the people), I was reassured that we have not made a mistake in electing him. I urge those people who voted for another candidate to get over whatever sense of loss they may be feeling that either Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator John McCain was not the one telling the nation how she/he would lead us out of this dire distress... to get over it and to join all responsible citizens in supporting Barack Obama. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by wallowing in old political sorrows. What would be the point of post-election rancor? Leave it to the media’s political pundits to wail and moan.. Folks like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich have bills to pay like the rest of us, and they have chosen to be professional nay-sayers. That’s the way they make their living. I won’t waste my energy hoping they will support this new president. But I do indeed hope regular Americans, all of us who are responsible citizens hoping for the best results from our government in Washington, will get on the side of this new President and will support his efforts to recover what has been lost by irresponsible leadership in the Capital and on Wall Street. President Obama ended his speech this morning with a plea for “HARD WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY” on the part of every American citizen, and especially for American citizens who have been elected to high office. He pledged himself to “a new and hopeful beginning for the United States of America.” How can I not be enthusiastic about that new beginning and about his leadership!

My BLOG’s title is “The Way I See It,” and in the BLOG mostly I am indulging my passion for photography. I write in my journal daily. I don’t always post what I write. That would be tiresome for me and for readers who visit the site. In retirement, I have found journaling to be more than a habit. It’s a way for me to focus my thinking on issues that I didn’t have time to consider when I was working. I have the time now to think and write about issues outside the field of elementary and secondary education. Of course, I continue to think and worry about what is happening to the education of Americans; and I often write about that subject in my journal. I don’t always publish on the BLOG what I have written.

On most days the focus of my thinking is on one or all of three subjects: politics, education, and culture (especially as culture is shaped by religion, education and politics). In the next few days and weeks I will include more of my journal writing on the BLOG, especially when it relates to this new President. In the BLOG. Of course, I will indulge my impulses to take pictures and to post them; and because I love poetry and the poetic thoughts of others, I will continue to include poetry of others and my own attempts at putting “the way I see it” into the language of poetry.

Today’s photograph reminds me a bit of the way life has been and is now for me. I often have to look closely to find details of something that is embedded in something else. I was standing in front of a huge wall of bougainvillea with so many dazzling blossoms that I was not at all sure the camera could manage it. A desert agave growing in front of the bougainvillea hedge was a distraction, but I had no choice but to include it. It occurred to me that I might be able to “Photoshop” it out of the picture; but when I got the image on my computer screen, I liked it more with the agave than without it. It reminded me of one of those very difficult jigsaw puzzles. President Obama’s America, our America, is presently a very difficult jigsaw puzzle. Let’s help him find the pieces and cooperate with his effort to put them together into a healthy twenty-first century country that we can continue to love and respect.