It was never the economy - stupid!

This morning during my drive to the office (in Salt Lake City) I spoke at length with one of our Client Managers in New Jersey about the introduction and testing of a new product at one of his retail clients. It was a very hopeful, upbeat conversation - not gloom and doom as you might expect from a Product Manager and a Client Manager in the current economy.

Frank (the Client Manager) and I spoke of opportunities and possibilities, and of course, as all responsible product managers and client managers must, we spoke briefly of the possible downside and the risks.

My product is not recession proof, but honestly, does that really matter? We aren't really having a recession and since these things are more related to emotion than reason, we might not if Mr. Greenspan would go away and stop chattering. (Honestly, the man has used more new words in two months than he did the whole time he was at the Fed. Time for this old boy to go quietly away!)

Then we talked about what really matters. Since we last had a business reason to talk, Frank's wife brought twin boys into the world and their home. There hasn't been a lot of sleep around there, but that is changing and the spring like weather has finally arrived in New Jersey. He noted that being able to get the boys out into the fresh air for walks was helping them sleep.

Then I spoke of two of my beautiful daughters, one graduating from High School and going on to prepare to accomplish her dreams in college in the Fall, and the other marrying a fine young man in July. We parted on a very hopeful note.

And as I hung up (figuratively - I actually pushed the little blue flashing button on what one of my friends calls the new "man earring,") I thought, "It was never about the economy, Mr. Carville. It was always about hope - stupid!"

And it always is, whether it is religion, economies, work, vacations, or digging out earthquake rubble - we hope! And even this morning, with what my sister calls our "schizophrenic Utah weather" (it was a beautiful 70+ yesterday - looks like rain today) I find myself hopefully thinking of Spring, graduations and weddings, new product placement and economic recovery.

I even dare to hope that they will figure out the big things in Washington; things like immigration, and health care, and sustainable fuels. Well, maybe that is more a dream than a hope ...