The Wisdom Of Mark Sanford

From Political Wire:

"You do a whole lot more soul searching on the way down, I think, than on the way up. The irony is, as a human being, I probably have more to offer than I ever had in my whole life, just based on prospective, wisdom that comes with pain. But I probably have a smaller canvas on which to paint than I've had at any point in a long time. It is what it is."

-- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), in an interview with the Charleston Post & Courier, on leaving politics.

Indeed, emotional pain CAN bring wisdom, humility, and perspective.

So often I think that the people in charge of countries, states, cities, companies and school systems have so little of the wisdom, humility and perspective that comes with working through emotional pain.

And then, when they do learn some of that (as perhaps Mark Sanford has), society has already discarded them as "losers" because in American society one can never admit defeat or
acknowledge pain or setbacks.

As the corporate-funded and corporate-souled education reform movement folks are so fond of saying "No excuses! No time to waste! We must have action and have action NOW!!!!"

Never mind that the actions we have taken over the last ten years regarding public education policy have made circumstances WORSE, we're going to take more speedy actions NOW!

And the hell with wisdom, humility and perspective.

The hell with learning from our mistakes.

The hell with figuring out if what we're doing is right.

The only thing that matters is ACTION!