Tough Love

"People are scared. They're desperate. You can't just stand around and hold hands and sing kumbaya and think the world is going to be a better place.... Life's tough." - Larry Winget

Funny that this quote (from a newspaper article I read) also seems to apply to Obama asking people to help him by making sacrifices for the good of the country.

"(The) values upon which our success depends-honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. ...What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility."

And when people ask what we will think in 6 months when Obama has not solved all the problems he "promised" to in his speech, I answer that he has laid a lot of the responsibility on the shoulders of the people. If we do not fix our problems, perhaps we should not blame him.

I am taking this "tough love" approach for the new year. I want to use it to move forward on my career path, my exercise and diet goals, and other personal plans. Since I feel I have "found myself in the place just right" with my move back to Wisconsin, I am now looking forward to eating until I'm 80% full, keeping in touch with friends and family, networking and meeting new people through interests and volunteering, continuing to jog and do pilates, and hopefully enjoying the fruits of my labors while sitting under my own "vine and fig tree."