Thomas L. Friedman’s Times op-ed gave us an inspiring bridge into the beginning of the week by expounding on a lesson learned while recently traveling cross country: “people want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.”

Everywhere you turn, rising oil prices, a weakening dollar, debt and crisis after crisis have finally lead to a reevaluation of what Friedman calls subprime values “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”  The interesting part is that many a thinker of late have been supporting a return to traditional values adjusted for modern times: work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means. The pendulum, it appears, is swinging back. With the right blend of both tradition and innovative values, what could be a momentous shift will be taking place under the next president, for whom Friedman’s criteria is this:

“Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.”

I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”

It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”