Everything is Awesome!

Maybe it's just spring, but I'm in a good mood.

Things are good all around and getting better. Don't believe the nay-sayers and downers. Ignore the news. Most importantly, ignore the politicians. The sky is not falling. If you vote for the wrong person, you will not die.

That's progress! Only a hundred years ago, if you voted for the wrong person (or backed the wrong dictator), you were killed. Hardly anyone does that anymore. Syria is becoming a pariah nation for just that reason. We all nod approvingly at the Arab Spring movement throwing out all the dictators. Freedom is contagious.

The world is more free today than it was when I was born. There is no Soviet empire threatening the world with nuclear disaster. Some people have tried to puff China up into the next evil empire but China is too busy making money to be the bad guy. China is our third largest trade partner (Canada and Mexico being the first two). A war with China would devastate our economy.

The world is healthier now than it was when I was born. Infant mortalitiy is steadily creeping downwards. Heart attacks are no longer the death sentence that they used to be. My grandmother recently had open-heart surgery and she was in the hospital for less than a week! That's amazing!

People are living longer.

Incomes...well incomes have stagnated for most folk. But the wonderful stuff that they can buy! Ipads, cellphones, electric cars, organic food, plane tickets to Nepal, etc., etc.

I could spend most of my time gushing about science and technological progress. I'm trying to restrain myself but Wow! We can have glow-in-the-dark kittens. The Voyager spacecraft which were launched around when I was born are now leaving the solar system. They have gold records in case they get picked up by any alien intelligence. How many people have a record-player in their home anymore?

We live in a world where James Cameron, a movie director, can be a deep-sea explorer. Space travel for the rich is on the cusp of becoming a reality.

So all you political junkies out there, relax and smell the roses. There will always be politics and problems. And there will always be heroes and solutions.