The government has shut down...

...Now what?

I don't know about you, but I am so gripped with anxiety over the federal government shutdown that I just don't know what to do with myself. (read: sarcasm.)

The news makes it seem as though all life as we know it is endangered by the fed closing its doors to business until further notice.

Stories of personal suffering, of fear, of helplessness, and of hopelessness. This may happen, or that will. Germs will run rampant because the FDA is not on the job. Criminals will be turned loose or not caught. Children will starve. The elderly will be neglected. People will suffer and die, because Uncle Sam is unable to agree with himself and reopen his wallet.

As I recall, America got through the government shutdown we had in the nineties just fine. She will get through this one just fine, too.

Why?

Because the heartbeat of this country is not the federal government, but the people who support it and make it up. Despite all of the doom and gloom being talked about all over the media, life continues to go on. People are still working. They are still buying and spending. They are still raising their families, keeping and supporting their homes, and conducting business as usual; whether or not the government is.

But, having been a member of the news media for several years, I know that these doom-and-gloom reports are just that; stories meant to dramatize the impact, and sensationalize the severity. They are useful in boosting ratings, selling subscriptions, and otherwise filling the coffers of the news industry. The whole truth isn't often reported in the media; but rather the "facts" that sell its product.

There are greater concerns in this world than whether or not Congress and the POTUS can agree; like the moral health of our country; like the destruction of the nuclear family; like the financial viability of the government; like the degenerative culture that drives and influences peoples' lives; and like the absence of an internal compass that used to guide people and their decisions through the practice of self-control.

Our society today places such a premium on what is empirical and extrinsic that it is no wonder we suffer a hissy-fit whenever our "things" and "materiel" get threatened. We have become so co-dependent on government to provide for our needs that it is no wonder people panic when Uncle Sam reaches into his pants pockets and turns them inside out.

If anything can be gleaned from this shut down, I hope that people can recognize that their lives can and do go on when the government does not; and that the government is not the end-all, be-all of American existence. It is not the defining element of our culture. We are. And the end-all, be-all of the American experience is the individual resolve of the average citizen to continue pursuing.

Perhaps the longer the feds are shut down, the more obvious this truth will appear to more people. ...Or not. We shall see.