Week 22: Swingset

School's out for me and that means it’s “project season.” The first project of this summer is a swingset. Between our house and our two next door neighbors, there are eight kids under nine. Ages: 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 6 months. Wanna come over...?   

The six oldest. From left:  

Leah, Sadie, Maddie, Finn, Katie, Nate

Money is tight, but Maureen and I figured a swingset would be the best place to put $500. Now, If you don’t know anything about swingsets, like us, you might think that $500 would get you a pretty decent swingset. Not true. A good swing set can run into the thousands. The ones available for around $500 would be destroyed by the kids in a matter of weeks.

Enter “project season.” We found one of those “expensive” swingsets on Craigslist for $200. The problem is, it’s over 10 years old, and is in someone else's lawn an hour into the suburbs. Now we just need to get a truck, disassemble it, transport it, sand it, stain it and reassemble it. It’s a lot of work and I’ve never done it before, but I think I can do it.

I can Make that Swingset Great Again!

As I was working on the swingset this week, I couldn’t help but notice that the president and I were in similar situations. We both had a dream. The stars aligned and we both were given a shot at reaching our dream. However, now that our dream is there in front of us, we have realized that we don’t know how to Make ______________ Great Again!         

     Parts of the swingset waiting to be “made great again!”

I’ve learned a few lessons this week that I would like to share. These lessons are for all of us but, just in the off chance the president reads this blog, I’ll include some specific lessons for him.

Lesson 1: Humility. It takes an “overconfident asshole” (Maureen likes to call me this sometimes) to take on a project that you have no business taking on. I’m a bit out of my league with this swingset, and most would agree that the president is a bit out of his league with this POTUS thing. If you want to reach your goals, you have to take risks, but it’s what you do once you’ve taken that risk that’s important.

I told my neighbor about the swingset. He arranged for us to borrow one of his work trucks. I don’t have a good ratchet set, he does. He is handy and has a tactile mind. I don’t. Without my neighbor, the swingset would be half disassembled in a yard an hour away.

I had the vision sure, but without his expertise my vision goes nowhere. So, I get the credit for the vision? Nope. He gets the credit for making it happen. Give credit don’t take credit.

Maybe the president played a role in this, but why take credit instead of give it?

Lesson 2: Priorities. It was very clear to me early on in this project that, in order for me to Make this Swingset Great Again, I was going to have to put a lot of my effort into a few of the pieces more than others. For example, all of the vertical pieces were in pretty good shape, while all of the horizontal pieces were in pretty rough shape. The horizontal pieces took the brunt of the weather for the past 10+ years. I could not help but make the connection that the vertical pieces were the “professional class” and the horizontal pieces were the “working class.” Sure, 10+ years ago both were in better shape, but the damage done to the horizontal pieces far supasses the damage to the vertical pieces.  

Since I am in charge of making this swingset “great again,” it’s obvious that I need to put more resources into the horizontal pieces. It would make no sense for me to put more or even equal resources towards the vertical pieces. What’s the point of a swingset with beautiful vertical pieces, but dilapidated, horizontal ones? The “working class” has taken the brunt of the “weather” in this country for the past 10+ years. Give them your resources. Think of them first when debating health care, taxes, education, etc.

The budget office projects that by 2026, 49 million people would be uninsured, compared with 28 million people if the current law remained in effect. (The total increase is 22 million due to rounding.) The increase in the number of uninsured would be disproportionately larger among older people with lower incomes.

NY Times

The “older people with lower incomes” are the horizontal pieces! How can you Make America Great Again by giving them less resources?  

One of the horizontal pieces that needed extra resources.

Lesson 3: Present. As a history teacher, it could be easy to always feel nostalgic about the past. Although I appreciate history and think it has lessons to teach us, I find dwelling on it to be problematic. The main reason I find it problematic is that the context is always changing. All too often people want to talk about the “good old days” or the “bad old days,” and they want those days to be either better or worse than “these days.” I find this problematic because they’re not better or worse, they are different. Some things may be better and some things may be worse. This is why I have always had a problem with the slogan Make America Great Again. I spoke about it in my first ever post. Great again, when? For whom? Things have never been better for the LGBTQ community. Although, things aren't “great” for African Americans, they are, generally, better than they were. So why would we want to make it “great again” if it’s better now than it was?  

I want to make the swingset “great again” but the reality is, the swingset will not be as great as it was 10+ years ago. Some parts rotted out and needed to be replaced. Holes needed to get filled and corners needed to get cut. It will be in a different location, with different kids playing on it. So much about the swingset will be different. It will not be “great again.” It will be a “great now.”

When the Founding Fathers drafted up our Constitution, the fastest way to get from Philadelphia to Washington DC was the Pony Express. Only White Men with property were allowed to vote. The president owned slaves. The USA had one of the smallest armies in the world. The point is, our goal should not be to Make America Great Again, it should be to Make America Great Now.   

  

    

         The swingset… approaching a new level of greatness.              

So, here’s our homework for the week:

1. Stay humble: Ask for help. Take help that is offered. Give credit. Don’t take credit.
2. Prioritize: Find the people in your school, work or community that need the most help. Help them.
3. Present: The past is the past. Focus on the present. Make things great now.   

Let’s rebuild our country piece by piece, starting with the horizontal pieces.