A Message To The President.

Many things come to an end. Some because you want them to others no matter what you do to prevent them. I have some very good friends, two to be exact, and soon they will be moving on. Their lives are about to take them in directions far away from me. It is not what I would like to happen but I cannot be selfish. I will miss them and will think about them often. I can only hope that every once in a while they will think of me too. And now to the actual post:

As many of you know and some of you may not it is customary for an outgoing President to leave a note for his successor. A few words of insight or wisdom to welcome the new Commander in Chief. I thought the other day what would I write? What wisdom could in bestow? Well, let us find out shall we?

To ________________________.

As I sit here looking out the window upon the January beauty of the capital of this great nation, I think back too all those who have come before us and all of those who will come after. I know it is customary to leave a few insights to help you on your first day but I think that I could better serve you in this way. After all of the pomp and circumstance of the Inauguration begins to drain away the reality of what is before you will be cast upon you quickly. If there is one thing that I can tell you that you may not have realized this I think may be the most important. Democracy is living breathing creature. It will fight you when you think that you can fight no more and go silent when you are prepared for battle. It lives in the billions of faces in which you will see in your time here. It is like water. Fickle, free flowing, it will make you think that it is weak while the whole time it is carving stone and moving mountains and glaciers. Democracy freely carves its way across this great nation and not unlike water randomly goes underground and sprays forth hundreds of thousands of miles away with steam, passion, and all the fury it can muster. While it quenches your most desperate thirst in one part of the nation in the other it is destructive and does all it can to undermine everything you have built. But democracy, at all times, is beautiful. It is beautiful when the sun sets upon it, when the moon reflects from it and when the sun rises once again. It reflects the faces of all those who look upon it. Remember those who came before us and think of those who will follow. And, never forget that you are a guest here. In closing, Mr. President, the most you can ever hope is that you will do a better job than those that came before you, and we can only hope that we did not make it easy for you.

Sincerely,

J