Above my $25 Craigslist dishwasher, hangs this little plaque from our local thrift store. It states simply, "Inside...we are all the same age."

The older I get, the more it's proven true. I may be forty-two, but my brain works exactly as it did when I was a nine-year-old. Straight-forward. Logical. Black-and-white. Idealistic. Fair. Honest.

Please tell me I'm not the only one! My mother always said, regardless of how old she gets, on the inside she feels exactly how she felt at age six!

Now don't get me wrong! I'm not one of these anti-adulthood people. Far from it!  I couldn't wait to become a responsible, independent adult unlike so many young people today who inexplicably cling to their shrieky, silly adolescence for an embarrassingly long time.

From the moment a new little American takes their first breath, everything in their lives is already a competition. Heck! We can turn anything into a competition. A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G!

Our parents brag about whose baby was the first to roll over. To talk. To take their first wobbly step. Our progress is anxiously charted against sundry baby books. We're enrolled in baby swim classes, baby language classes...and rushed into public school almost before we're out of diapers!

At school, the competition ante is upped or at least it was when I was in Baptist school. Who gets the most A's on their report card. Show-and-tell. Gym class. Mathletics. Sports. Languages. Homecoming King and Queen. All competition.

By the time you hit adulthood, competition is ingrained in your DNA. It's an instinct you don't think twice about. It's only taken me forty years to figure out that turning Life into a competition is bullshit! (Sorry, Nancy. Language! I couldn't help myself.)

"Why write yet another blog, Lenora?" you ask.

Because I am frustrated!

Yes, I love writing AMERICA: The Blog but America's not the only topic I think about. The entire concept of protecting Freedom is that Freedom protects us and frees us not to think about it so we can enjoy our lives to the utmost.

Limiting myself to only write about America/politics has left me stranded with a backlog of thousands of words about other topics, all jostling in my brain behind a dam labeled, "But It's Not About America" spilling over onto thousands of hand-written journal pages, read by no one but me.

Well, that stops now!

The truth is, philosophizing is one of my favorite hobbies. Okay! Okay! It may well be my only hobby. Be kind!

But what's the fun of compulsively philosophizing if I can't share it with you!? Hence the new blog! It might be a blessing or it might be complete caca. Either way, it's gonna be fun!