There has been so much talk about military preparedness recently. No wonder, with what’s been going on. So much discussion and vituperation over which strategy to choose, ad nauseum.

There’s really no point discussing who is more prepared than the other. Instead, we should be talking about maids. Domestic help.

My countrymen live in a paradise. Opportunities to make ourselves strong and desirable trading partners abound. Part of that is the abundance of domestic help available. We have so many opportunities to:

1. Impart rigorous, growth-encouraging daily disciplines.

2. Learn another language.

3. Teach maids how to read, write and do arithmetic well.

4. Introduce them to disciplined financial habits.

5. Instill values of loyalty, initiative and boldness.

6. Impart mentoring skills by recommending them to their next employer when their time with our current household is up.

7. Develop gratefulness in them when they leave, and have yet one more friend for life.

My countrymen certainly are erudite enough to be benevolent. Seizing opportunities is second nature. Becoming, in the eyes of maid wannabes, an employer of choice.

But alas, I am not ordained to preach, as Sam Walter Foss said some time ago.

That’s why I have never been able to employ a maid.

And perhaps why all this military preparedness talk going on around the world makes very little sense to me. But then, I am not ordained to preach.