Day In the Sun Done and Being Brave

No one is less ready for tomorrow than the person who holds the most rigid beliefs about what tomorrow will contain.
Watts Wacker, et al.

My parents are very dependent on the economic well being of the General Motors Corporation as retirees receiving benefits. It was with great dismay, but not surprise that I read what their profit margin loss was this quarter: $15.5 billion. What is sad to me is shortly after I got out of graduate school, I sat on a committee that was dealing with the socioeconomic changes to Michigan in relation to the automobile industry and what could be done about it. The project was sponsored by amongst others, General Motors. One of the largest recommendations was diversification of the economic base and that General Motors invest in innovative technology to produce cars that would be much less dependent upon oil based energy sources. General Motors and the State of Michigan ignored these recommendations. The State of Michigan kept to an economic focus based on automotive technology. General Motors chose to focus on large based vehicle production to boost their profit margin. The State of Michigan is now leading the country in unemployment rates and General Motors with the aforementioned profit loss. It's heartbreaking to me that many of us on the committee had a clear vision of the needs for the future, but that the higher ups ignored that vision in favor of immediate profit. It's not too late though. Hopefully this will be a wake up call and they will heed it. Otherwise General Motors day in the sun is done and the Midwest where I grew up truly will be a total rust belt.

But I wanted to add a bit more today about vision. I'm dedicating myself to Jessie's at Diary of a Self Portrait, Be Brave Project. She based it on the Eleanor Roosevelt's words of "doing the one thing every day that scares you." Well there are a lot of things that are scaring me and as I've mentioned that this coming year is the one before I reach a very significant birthday. I've decided I'm going to reach out to be brave and travel more as this is the one thing that both scares and exhilarates me. I receive a daily message from a web source and this came today:

If you can imagine it, you can have it, L-M. This is the name of the game. This is the lesson to learn. It couldn't be any easier. Reality is not what your eyes show your mind, but what your mind creates for your eyes to see. You are not limited by logic, the past, or the world around you. You are not even of the world around you. You are supernatural, pure spirit. You came first. Magic, miracles, and luck are the consequences of understanding this, the inevitable result of dreaming and acting in spite of appearances.

You are ever so close. Simply stay the course. It won't be very much longer.

The Universe

So I'm dedicating myself to be brave, to let go of my rigid beliefs of what my life should be at this time and trust that tomorrow will contain something wonderful....

Joseph Arthur, "In the Sun":