Pictured above: The Long View
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ABQ Weather or Not
Metaphorically speaking, it's still a bit frosty out there and while the sky is mostly blue, there are still lots of clouds.
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It may be of interest to take the longer view when it comes to market behavior. While certainly no guarantee of future market performance, historically speaking(from Cetera Investment Management) :
"In the 18 post-WWII four-year Presidential cycles, the S&P 500 had an average annualized return of 11.7%
per cycle. The average annualized gain was 15.3% under Democratic administrations and 8.8% under Republican administrations ."
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Let's talk About Unity
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Digging a little deeper...
unity. Antonyms: plurality, multitude, complexity, multiplicity, discord, disjunction, separation, severance, variety, heterogeneity, diversity, incongruity, divisibility. Synonyms: oneness, singleness, individuality, concord, conjunction, agreement, uniformity, indivisibility.
Source: dictionary.com
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Plant yourself beside the River.
As a child, I was told how much words mattered. And I was often a recipient of: "use your words," an admonishment meant to underscore the impact of choosing the right words, which was equally important. I mention this because after what we, our country, have been through this past week, it's challenging to single out a topic for this week's blog.
There's been a lot of talk about "unity" - how we need to heal, how it's not about Red tates and Blues states but rather the United States, and let's face it, we've all been inculcated with the belief that "united we stand, divided we fall" when it comes to fighting for our Democracy.
And yet is anyone willing to embrace "unity" as defined above? While "harmony" and "agreement" would be welcome passengers on the Unity bus, do we really want to give "totality" a seat? And how about 4. "absence of diversity"? Sounds like a whole lot of our neighbors won't be getting on this bus...
What do we really want? Underneath it all, don't we all want the same things: to preserve our way of life, to pursue our happiness, and to not live in fear? So perhaps we can unite on this basic truth: that our similarities far outnumber our differences and stop the destructive focus of what divides us.
Majdah reminded me this morning of Maya Angelou's wonderful poem, On The Pulse of Morning, or to be more precise, of its message. It captured a nation when it was first read to millions of Americans. And then, as now, we had emerged from a particularly contentious General Election. Perhaps it's time to once again let it do its magic. (Click to read).
...fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
And isn't that so much of our struggle: fear? We can recognize it in a context of risk aversion - but can we recognize it at the heart of the demonizing? Because, only when it is stopped can "accord", "agreement", "harmony", "assent", "collaboration" - words of unity - move us forward.
We can come together despite our recent history. We can restore that hopeful optimism which has always been a hallmark of this country. But do we have the emotional maturity, and can we demonstrate the resilience to stop drawing a line in the sand because of how we voted? Can we instead celebrate that which we share - our love of this country? We can: by calling upon our better selves; we have it in our power to heal.
Can we please try?
Note: Please also consider the reality of the antonyms above.
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Last Word: Obonato
An anthropologist invited the children from an African tribe to play one game. He placed a basket of fruit near a tree and announced, addressing the children "The one of you who reaches the tree first will be rewarded with all the sweet fruits." When he signaled to the children to start the race, they locked their hands tightly and ran together. And then they all sat together and enjoyed the delicious fruit.
The anthropologist was astonished and asked the children why they all ran together, when each of them could have enjoyed the fruit for himself. They replied "Obonato." Is it possible for one to be happy if everyone else is sad? In their language "Obonato" means: "I exist because we exist."
Editor's note: May that child reside within all of us.
(Source: a Facebook post by K.Pavlansky)