I'm in Grand Junction to teach and lecture AND I get to stay with Linda! We are already busy – having fun and working. We had planned to go places and do stuff but it is cold! I thought it was cold in Texas… not so much in comparison. I hope to have images from here to share later but for now I want to share Zits from this from this morning's funnies:

I may not be a teenager but boy, I can relate. However I am trying to be more patient – and possibly understanding – every day. I am happy to report, practice does help with that whole balancing thing!

The video below is a TED talk given by Adam Davidson. (You can also watch it here.) He is the co-creator and co-host of Planet Money on NPR. He is one of the most thoughtful voices on the economy that I have heard. My first encounter with him was on This American Life in The Giant Pool of Money show (more on that below).

This TED talk is about the recent fiscal cliff and it's not what you think it will be. Rather than pointing out who is right and who is wrong, he focuses on where we come together on economic issues. I was happily surprised to see that the data show that as a people, we concur on many important issues. 

I rarely dip my toe online into what could be called political discourse. I rarely talk about politics to anyone any more because we are a country evenly divided on many issues. But have you noticed that (as long as you don't venture into politics) we mostly all get along just fine? We are usually polite with each other. And, while I lean one way politically, I happily concede that people on the 'other side' often make some good points. 

What this talk brought home to me is that there is room for hope that solutions can be found. Our leaders and the media are entrenched on one side or the other. Their position defines them and that makes it hard for them to admit that any other position has merit. But if we could get them to step out of their trenches and visit nicely with each other, good could come of it. How we do that, I don't know – except that sharing ideas politely, finding value in each other's ideas, is a good place to start.

Here it is… let me know if like it too.

Back to the Giant Pool of Money. It is an award-winning hour-long This American Life episode by Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg that you can still listen to. It explains how the mortgage crisis began. even if you think you know how it happened (and I did) you are likely to learn things you just can't believe. If you want more from them, check out Planet Money. I don't have time to listen as often as I'd like to but I learn something every time I do. FYI – there's a link to NPR – Planet Money in my favorite blog list at right.