BEING AN AMERICAN MEANS GETTING SECOND CHANCE.

Byline: Carol K. Cunningham Local View

THE best thing about life in America is the amazing number of chances we get to start anew. For anyone who was crying about the 512-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average Aug. 31, there was a new beginning, a return to the positive Sept. 1. Whichever way the market goes this month, next month will be something new again.

Renewal is everywhere. As the traditional school year begins for most students (and their parents), families have a chance to create a better life for themselves. Timid toddlers get to learn social skills, and the beginnings of math and reading in preschool and kindergarten. Last year's lackluster elementary school pupils get a fresh chance to shine in their new classes this year.

High school students will be testing their wings, even as their parents are told to give them more freedom and responsibility (all the while keeping a watchful eye on them, of course), and college students are living away from home for the first time.

For parents, there is a different kind of rebirth. This is the time when we try to recapture what it was we were going to do with our lives before they became filled with the minute-to-minute details of work and parenting. As John Lennon wrote so well, ``Life is what happens while you are making other plans.''

Now, as the youngest child heads off for school, we find ourselves asking: What am I going to do with my life? A wise person noted that the reason adults keep asking little children what they want to do when they grow up is because the grown-ups are looking for suggestions.

This is a good time to try to remember the ideals we thought were important when we took the time to plan our lives. If we haven't always been the spouse we planned to be on our wedding day, we can try again, right now. If we haven't always taken the kind of care of our bodies that we know we should, we can start right now. If we overlooked prayers, reading, appreciating nature, and writing thank-you notes, we can start again now.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in 1945, ``Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.''

If our representatives in the state Legislature and Congress have forgotten how to serve the people who elected them, if the president has forgotten how to act like a moral leader, if our city leaders have forgotten how to be responsive to every constituent (including those in the San Fernando Valley), this is a good time for a new beginning.

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln told the Congress to ``renew our trust in God and go forward without fear.''

The best part about America is that if we blow it again in the weeks ahead, we can start over all again on Rosh Hashana, or on Christmas, or on New Year's Day, or on our birthday. And if our elected officials blow it again, we can vote for a fresh start on Election Day.