“The future is no place to
place your better days,” – Dave Matthews (Cry Freedom)
As we go through life we
look to set mile markers down at various points – places/times and events that
are turning points for us. Some
represent turning for the better and some represent turning for the worse. As we grow older we can look back on those
markers and discern a trend. For taken
together, those markers form the thread of your life. It is the discernment of that trend that
allows for significant self-awareness, and that self-awareness is the key to making
wise choices in your future.
Some events are so huge
that they are obvious. Some are not –
they are seen only in hindsight. Others
are deliberate – like the day you finally got serious about your diet/exercise/education/whatever
and purposed to change/improve.
The same can be said of
society as a whole, but discerning which events are key and which are simply
random is a lot harder, because society as a whole does not have a single mind
to reflect on the entire frame of reference.
Aside from ‘mass’ events (such as an election or a major disaster), it
is only in hindsight – as we look at history – that we can even try to pick out
those days/events that set the course of our society on a particular path.
Nevertheless, there are some
events that signal points in trends that individuals can pick out merely by
being observant. Perhaps though, you
don’t even need to be particularly observant to notice that our times seem to
be spirally steadily downward. Most days
you pick up the news and read of at least one tragic incident, but this week
there were three shocking stories of human beings doing absolutely horrific
things to each other that I think mark a new low point in western society.
In Florida, a naked man is
shot to death while literally chewing off the face of another naked (and alive)
man on a highway on-ramp.
In Syria, their own
government hires thugs who systematically massacre over 100 civilians, most of
them women and children.
Here in Canada, a man
dismembers another and mails various parts across the country.
Such things ought never to
happen. Yet we must recognize that they
did, because we cannot change circumstances that others have hoisted upon us. These events are now part of our collective
history.
What we can change is where
we go from here – our reaction is just that.
Our choice(s) in light of circumstance.
You COULD just ignore these events.
If you choose to do that, perhaps George Santayana’s words will ring
true (“Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it”). Or, perhaps, you will reflect on where the
trend is showing us to be heading, and you’ll do your level best to do
SOMETHING about it. As Edmund Burke
said, “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”
