Musings of An Eclectic Cowboy
The Secret of My Success
January 21, 2009
Back in 1987 Michael J Fox starred in a movie titled The Secret of My Success. It was a comedy about a farm boy leaving the farm for the city and making it big there. I was reminded of this movie this morning with all of the publicity about the Presidential Inauguration yesterday. Yesterday marked the coming of a new President and the going of an old one. Now if you believe the news media then (in the eyes of America) former President Bush is not a success mainly because Americans are poorer today than they were at this time last year. You see the stock market wrecked havoc on a lot of people's retirement accounts. It pulled the rug out from under a lot of companies causing a substantial drop in net worth forcing bail outs and lay offs. So now the Knight In Shining Armor has come on the scene. In President Obama people see hope and believe that he will turn our circumstances around and we will be successful again. There will never be another bad day.
Now I don't believe that the President of the United States has the power to make us a success. I don't believe that any President that we have ever had has had that kind of power. I don't believe that any elected official period all the way from our city and county officials up to the US Congressmen has that kind of power either. Our founding fathers knew that they didn't have that kind of power. They knew that there is no way that they could have defeated the British if it wasn't for the people joining them in their fight. They couldn't force anybody to join the army because they had absolutely no power. But the United States was born and it was successful. People were proud of what they did and who they were. It was that kind of pride and independence that made this country great.
Then at some point in time the people of the United States decided that success was directly correlated to the amount of money that was in the bank account. This has turned us into a nation of greedy people. It was greed that got us to the point that we are looking to the Government for bail outs. In other words it wasn't Bush or any of the other former Presidents that caused our economic problems that we have today, it was us. The President and the Congress has just been giving us what we want. And I believe that we are in for more of the same.
Personally I believe that for the United States to turn around a be a successful nation again. We The People have to change our definition of success. We have to find our inner strength and not depend upon the character and strength of our Government. We have to be proud of who we are. I challenge you to look into the mirror to find the most successful person that you know not because of the size of your bank account or any other worldly attribute but because you will be looking at the image of God.
The Secret of My Success is that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that my family knows who He is. What is yours?
Vaya con Dios
The Eclectic Cowboy
Winfield Davenport