Sunny Davidsons: Glass Half-Full?

Happy New Year!

I spout a lot and spouting can sometimes have a negative tone. So I thought I would start the year off on the right foot. Glass half-full? Of course the glass is always half-full but in 2016 and the year of a Presidential election in the USA – we are going to constantly hear about everything that is wrong with this country and the world. The good things will easily get lost in all this negativity.

I am not saying that there is anything wrong with pointing out our drawbacks and challenges. This is the way we learn. Mrs. Montgomery my fourth grade teacher was pretty clear that punching and otherwise touching my classmates was not appropriate behavior. Today I am pretty much punch-less and I should thank Mrs. Montgomery for her constant help including the water-boarding. 

But we also know that too much emphasis on the negative can be counterproductive. My father’s name was Sonny Davidson.  Born in 1915 he was a young teen when the Great Depression hit and he decided he already had enough schooling and hit the streets. Later during World War II he passed himself off to the Merchant Marines as an electrician. After the war he was selling cigarettes on the Staten Island Ferry where he met my mom. Sonny was an eternal optimist despite being beaten back time and time again. He fought hard to put the food on the table and had at least the following occupations – taxi driver, entertainer with a stage name (Zonn Murray was a hypnotist, mind reader, magician), Miami Beach strip club manager, bar manager in Key West and then Havana, appliance salesman, appliance store owner, and then gift wholesaler. Both his appliance store start-ups ended in bankruptcy.

But if Sonny Davidson was optimistic his dear wife Marge was Mother Teresa.  Marge was born in Budapest and came to the US in 1929 – great timing mom! She met Sonny one day on the Staten Island Ferry and that was that. They moved to Miami after World War II and happily raised two sons there. They were the classical good cop bad cop when it came to raising children but always they were optimistic and forward looking. No wall was too high to climb. Thus my title today is Sunny Davidsons.

Inasmuch you see why it is so easy and natural for me to advance the glass half-full philosophy. As we march through the battlefield of 2016 it does not hurt to think about some things….

            If you are reading this you are alive. Smile.

            Thanks to innovation we have things available to us that we never even dreamed of 20 years ago. If mom was alive she would not be using something called a wash tub and ringer.

            While Russia is no pussycat, I am not a pimply teen walking around Miami waiting for a violent reaction by the Soviets over Kennedy’s Cuban Missile Standoff.

            While we are contemplating ground troops in Syria, we are not learning daily of casualties in a far-off place called Vietnam. Most people today do not even know the word napalm.

            Non-profits and charities are everywhere serving the needs of the less-fortunate and many of us are proud to serve on their boards and committees.

            Despite continuing worries about the future of the Social Security System, the baby boom is retiring in scores and receiving checks that make life easier for boomers.

            Radio stations continue to play Party Doll and other favorites from the 1950s.

            Despite lingering two-way racism and ensuing unrest, minorities are succeeding in education, work, and are no longer subject to obnoxious insults like sitting in the backs of buses.

            While many of us dislike a swollen national debt our government is not teetering on the brink of collapse as in Greece, Brazil, Russia, Venezuela, and several other countries.

            No one likes sub-par economic growth but if one looks around the world today a 2% growth rate is not bad. Consumer spending rose 3% last quarter.

            Gays can marry and are mostly treated as regular folk.

            While politics and elections are important and colorful – most of our days and hours are  filled with both frustrating and wonderful friends, family and neighbors.

Have an absolutely wonderful 2016.