I was blasting classic Rolling Stones in my truck yesterday at a few minutes before 5 p.m. when the phone rang. I did not recognize the number so debated whether to answer what was likely a junk call from someone asking me about my car warranty or — one I’ve been getting of late — someone trying to sell me a vacation package with a particular hotel chain. The caller ID said it was coming from Greensboro.

Can morality play a role in capitalism? Should it? Human society has, of course, wrestled with this dilemma for centuries.

Donald Trump is many things most people wouldn’t want in a neighbor, co-worker or son in-law. He’s uncouth, lecherous, manipulative, egotistical, arrogant, vindictive, paranoid, humorless, bigoted, willfully ignorant, lazy, dishonest — a grifter as well as a pathological liar — and cruel.  

The truth, even when it’s staring you down Clint Eastwood style, is easier to ignore than to act on. Just human nature, I guess, but something has to give.

As they say, “What screws us up the most in life is the picture in our head of how it’s supposed to be.” We hold images in our minds and expectations in our hearts of how our existence should unfold and when it doesn’t go that way, we often feel we’ve failed ourselves and those we love.

My wife and I were truly blessed to have our children, some relatives and close friends gathered for Thanksgiving, which has always been my favorite holiday. So many of the people I love, all together around the table and nothing on the agenda except to re-tell stories from the past, muse about the future, revel in each other’s company and eat until we couldn’t. The world’s problems seemed to melt away.

I have felt disconnected from the holidays ever since my mom passed away six years ago. Throw a divorce, two moves and a pandemic in the mix and things really get wonky when the goal is to be joyful. 

I was standing at my desk this morning looking forward to the coming Thanksgiving weekend with our grown children and fixating on the importance of shopping local. 

Maybe the change was an inevitable byproduct of our charged and contentious era.

Leaders in a free republic should serve the common good. That’s why the U.S. system of government and our freedoms have captivated and inspired people around the world. Basically, we are proof that a free people can make the right choices and self-govern and, usually, do the right thing.