SENTINEL WATCH January 4, 2010 Issue

EXPECT GOOD

WALTER RODGERS

BRISSAC LE HAUT, FRANCE. Less than a year ago, thousand marched on the streets of Paris and other French cities shouting, "Down with the government!" and demanding more protection from the recession. The public mood was whisker away from ugly. But within the next seven months it was announced that the economy was actually growing again, and France, along with Germany, was out of recession.

Politics is nothing but fickle, and perhaps nowhere more so than in France. But what if instead of disgruntlement, there were a greater expectancy of good in individual and collective thought? Might it not radically change the world?

I thought a lot about expectancy while on holiday recently in this small French village. At first I was told not a soul spoke a word of English. No matter. I was the ambassador of expectancy. I was also designated by our hosts to make the morning croissant run down the mountain to the village boulangerie. As I fumbled in French, I discovered the clerk was repeating my pastry order in better English than my French. Not only that, she proudly announced she sang in a gospel choir. We shared a good laugh—a French woman in a remote Piedmont village singing American gospel music!