According to Investopedia, “The trickle-down effect is a term used in marketing and advertising. It can refer to the notion that fashion trends “trickle-down” from upper-class citizens to lower-class citizens, or that as a product becomes widely adopted, the price falls.”

It can also something that gradually passes down from those in power to those who have no control. From the royalty to the common folk, so to speak. When trickle down happens, things change. Alterations.

When our way of life is altered gradually, society adjusts. When life changes quickly, the attitudes of some people can become angry and even volatile.

Since the elections of 2020, changes have been swift and sometimes harsh. Patience has been tested. Nothing escapes the eye of social media. The entire country is on edge.

It’s almost as if the animosity between the powers that be in America has trickled down to small town America. The gas has skyrocketed, grocery prices have gone crazy, taxes have gone up. Wages have stayed the same.

What the middle class did, living hand to mouth a few years ago has been changed. It seems now like we run out of money before we run out of month.

Poor government, political agendas concerned more with what’s best for the parties than what’s best for the people of the country and no answers from the top have bred an anger and a frustration that has trickled down to the violent larger cities, now the smaller towns.

It trickles down to the businesses, to the families, to the parents and now down to the children.

We have plenty of financial and political physicians that are diagnosing the problems, blaming everyone else and not offering any cure for the illness. Diagnosis, prognosis giving us all pyrosis – all with no prescription for recovery.

If we look around us, we see that we are no longer a tolerant, kinder, gentler nation. Tempers are quicker. Anger has come to a boil. Violence has run rampant and crime is at an all-time high. There are families that once were close who are now barely speaking to one another.

From the top down it almost looks as if the plan to divide and conquer our nation has been instituted. It’s an internal enemy that is running rampant. We open our doors to embrace those who hate us. We have put into power those who wish to see the country destroyed. We have witnessed the publication of out and out lies and put forth statements with half-truths. We have conspiracy theorists and boast of militias that are marching only in the minds of those who created them.

The hate has trickled down. The lies have trickled down. The violence without repercussion has trickled down, and if it hasn’t quite reached your community, wait for it because it is coming.

There is a tenseness, an anxiety and a fear that has crept in.

We are like a house with a volatile parent. They rage and the entire family walks on eggshells.

Part of dealing with a problem is identifying it, exposing it and then disarming it.

Floodwaters have come down upon us and the water is now entering into our homes bringing pests, predators and disease. We can’t blame family members for not building the house on a high enough plot of ground. We can’t blame the kids for leaving the doors open.

Where is your focus? On the one who didn’t have the insight to prevent a problem or the water itself that has even now soaked your shoes and is rising to wet your britches.  

What we can do is find a family solution to bag sand and bail water. The problem at this point is not to curse the darkness, but rather, to light your candle. Not to tap into your spirit of anger, but listen to the still small voice of reason.