What have you done? Who have you touched?
I’m kind of an old guy, I’ll be 54 in a little over month. And time moves really, really fucking fast now. It seems like just yesterday my daughter was laying on my chest in the morning and dreaming her little baby dreams. She’s a mom to a one year old now. I’m a grandfather. And a widower. And my youngest just finished his freshman year in college.
Memories are a bigger part of my life now than dreams. I no longer think in terms of possibilities. This world is no longer mine to conquer. It belongs to the ones I will leave behind. I spend a whole lot more time thinking about the mess we’ve left than the opportunities that might be. But there are opportunities. In fact, the future is all about what can be created from the skeletons of the past.
I tend to get a little dark when I contemplate the future. My son says I’m apocalyptic. I guess it’s true, sort of. But actually, I have great optimism that the children will figure out what we couldn’t quite grasp. That being, that they have the power to change things. If only they exercise it. The apocalyptic part comes from a near certainty that they won’t grasp the gravity of the situation until it’s too late.
And that’s just human nature. We’ve done it over and over again. We create vast civilizations only to let the greedy manipulate the laws to benefit themselves and bring it all to a crashing end. We ignore rumors of genocide until the bodies pile up and the stench of death is no longer offensive. We somehow twist the words of our greatest prophets to fit the ends of our most base avarice.
We can do better. And it begins with asking ourselves one simple question: How does this serve the greater needs of humanity?
I’m no saint. The work I do doesn’t serve the greater good. In any visible way that I can imagine. It pays the rent and allowed me to raise four children. Maybe more children than I should have raised. But, they are four souls that I’m pretty sure have the values I hold. And maybe, just maybe, one or two of them will be able to find the courage to do what I haven’t been able to do.
This world needs to be changed, dramatically. If there’s any hope for a livable future for humanity (and all the rest of the denizens of this rock). I’m not even convinced there’s enough time left to save what we have. Then again, maybe it’s not really worth saving anyway. Let it burn and create something new and better from the ashes?
I don’t have the answers. But the most important questions just aren’t even being asked.
What have you done? Who have you touched?
Thank you for your time.
