Everyone has by now heard the endless woes of the American consumer in today’s economy, with the housing crunch and record gas prices and a slowing economy. I am here to agree that things are tough, but also to ask everyone to please tone it down with the nonsense.
Yes, gas is getting more expensive. Way more expensive. And by the day, it seems. Every time I drive, whether to work, the grocery store, church, wherever—I think about the cost of driving, and think how I can combine trips to make things cheaper.
But is this all bad? We’ve heard for the last decade, at least, how cars are bad for the environment and how The West is too addicted to oil, et cetera. Now that the cost is doing something about it, we hear nothing but how terrible it is that we can’t continue to do these things that just a year or two ago we kept hearing were so bad. (And top it off with a recent report I read bemoaning the fact that alternative fuels were causing food shortages.)
The bottom line is, there is no perfect solution that will get us all to a wonderful utopia. None. We just need to do our best with what life (Divine Providence?) throws our way, and trust that Providence to guide us along the way and teach us lessons from what we encounter. That is how we get to a better place here on earth.
