Muse of the Week: Compromise

A brief observation as we head off on a camping trip:

We spend our parental years teaching our children that they can't always get everything that they want, and that compromise is necessary. When they reach school age, teachers from elementary school through college offer the explanation that there are three branches of power in the federal government to preserve checks and balances and essentially mandate compromise. Moderation is built into the fundamental framework of the American political system.

And then we watch our elected officials steadfastly refuse to compromise.

It's frustrating, it's completely unproductive and it's downright un-American. And if we don't watch ourselves, we will entirely lose coming generations to the ennui of that disheartening realization that reality bears no relation to the principles they have been taught.