2013

I remember when 1984 seemed unimaginably far in the future.  Now it's very nearly thirty years in the past.  Ronald Reagan was President.  At the time he seemed to me to be the arch conservative.  Looking back from today's perspective, he looks like a bleeding heart liberal.  I tell you, friends, I feel like some relic from a distant past when human beings could still entertain the hope of creating a more human world--a world in which the benefits of modern civilization could be shared by all those who cared to enjoy them.

Today I ponder this question: am I a dinosaur?  Or am I, with my glimmering perception of a great paradigm shift, a vast movement forward into a more expansive human consciousness, on the cusp of a new era?  It seems to me that our species must either face extinction like the dinosaurs--though, unlike the dinosaurs, by our own collective choice--or find its way to greater wisdom and mutual compassion.

Which will it be?  I have no way of knowing.  Nor will I likely live long enough to find out.  But the outcome might well be decided while my grandchildren still live.  My generation, I fear, has done much to sully the nest in which we hatched these fledglings.  May they inherit the better part of our humanity, the generous spirit, along with the will and the wisdom to change our course.

Happy New Year, friends!  And metta to all, the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant, the generous and the mean-spirited, the loving and those filled with greed and hate.  May they all find true happiness in their lives; for if they do, the world will surely be a better place.