Day Eight: "Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things"...

Day Eight:  I like that President Obama, referred to the "makers of things", in his speech today, as the people who helped bring our country to prosperity.  No where in his speech did he say the "buyers of things have made our country what it is today".  Is this something that we had forgotten, in our race to spend our way back in to a "healthy economy"? We, Americans, are makers of things.  We do not simply need to subcontract to the cheapest source of labor or use the cheapest source of goods.  We need to make things, not just money, we need a product.

Today, I am so very thankful for my hands and their ability to create something out of parts. Make dinner, make a quilt, it is all the same, the whole is more than the sum of it's parts.   I think that each one of us has this ability and we just need the confidence to try, and then the fortitude to try again or try something new when the first attempt looks ridiculous.

This part that follows is also one of my favorites...I really like that he referred to our "curiosity" and "imagination" in the address.  Those are two of the most vital things I try to cultivate in my boys...sometimes it is a bit much, but it will take them far in life 

"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage."

JMB