Happy Days...

...Are Here Again.

America's long nightmare is over.

Over the weekend, it happened.

It seems millions of us got in the habit of that kinder and gentler America Daddy Bush said he was all for. The lions are lying down with the lambs. The common man and woman gently took the reins. Millions of us left our cars behind. We're out leaning over the fences of this great nation of ours, talking to our neighbors, loving them and their kids and pets, too. We're parking our cars. We're walking to the local store with a canvas bag to pick up a few groceries, walking the dog, walking the kids to the park, using any excuse to get out and walk.

We're sitting out in our front yards, drinking tap water and reading books, not thinking about what tools we need to overhaul our homes, just watching things as they are, seeing the passersby as people with whom we live.

We've sold off our second homes, even at a loss, so we can simplify and tread more lightly, and as for those huge piles of crap busting our garages at the seams, well, we held some killer yard sales and donated the rest of that stuff we didn't need no way. We've just sighed that big "enough's enough" sigh of relief. We now spell "relief" L.I.T.E. Tastes great, less filling.

We've moved back into town from the country and from the suburbs.

We've turned off the TV, except for a few special favorites now and then, like a few times a month. Yep, how did this happen? We're not morons any more. No more stuffing our faces 'til we keel over. No more stuffing our bloated souls with the Gods of Hogwash or Hogwarts. At last, we love pigs more than we love bacon. We love saving more than spending. We love life more than imitations thereof. We're real. We got REAL.

We've given up our gym memberships and just started walking from our homes, lifting furniture or big bags of catfood for free.

We've become more patient, less ambitious, less competitive, more tolerant and peaceful, more meditative, more thoughtful, smarter.

And we're reading a lot more bedtime stories to our children.

And wishing wilderness and all the wild animals everywhere good night.

Lights out.