Hyperbole

I was talking with my wife a few nights ago, fretting about the ever-deepening (and broadening) financial crisis, and she stopped me and asked, "Why are you worrying about this?"

I thought about this for awhile. I realized (and we further discussed) that this is not something we need to worry about. God has provided for our family thus far, and we have no reason to believe that won't continue. What that means may change significantly, and our lifestyle may have to make a radical shift. But what of it? Here's the truth: the things that I derive my quality-of-life from will be largely unaffected by our financial state.

I quickly realized in that conversation that my worrying and obsessing about the financial markets were distracting me from the things I'm really worried about. I'm not worried so much about losing our money; in our lives I expect to see both lean times and fat, and we will tighten and loosen our belts as needed. We will survive, regardless. What I'm really worried about is losing our freedoms.

The more we (and by we I mean our nation, collectively) divert our energies to obsessing about the global financial meltdown, the less we will notice the ongoing erosion of the freedoms our country was established to bring about.

I predict (at least) one of two things will happen. (Perhaps both.)

1. Insidious acts or changes will be committed by our leaders and go largely unnoticed amidst the torrent of "bad news", AND/OR
   
2. Terrible policy changes will be enacted in plain sight, justified as balms for the ailing financial situation.

Yes, #2 has already happened more than once – but I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet.