AT LEAST IT SEEMS THAT WAY

Have you ever noticed the scenery you pass on the way to work and wondered what that scene looked like 100 years before and what it might look like 100 years ahead?

I hadn’t until recently, but as I am now 88 years old I have begun to wonder why we humans take our selves so seriously, while our eyes and minds still work, when we should realize that it is we who are evanescent, while the world around us persists through millennia?

There are many dimensions of this phenomenon. Some are purely psychological; some are physiological; and some are structural and geographical.

The psychological range from the eyes of a ten-year-old to those of a 90-year-old. The kid may be awed, inspired and impressed. The 90-year-old may be bored, depressed or resigned.

The physiological range from how the world we live in shapes our lives, limits our functions and/or inspires our creativity.

And the geographical dimensions effects transportation, speed and density.

The role of us humans in dealing with all that our predecessors created before us – and we inevitably leave for our successors – is distorted by our collective egos telling us that the world we live in is all about us – not what surrounds us.

The deconstruction of our relationship with the physical world we live in perhaps is too abstract for understanding and helping our everyday living. Yet, it may help some of us figure out better how to use our remaining time on this planet.

Every human who ever lived must in some way, to some degree, have hoped to be happy, comfortable, free, liked, loved and respected. There are probably almost as many ways for that formula to be applied as there are people and it is largely an unconscious process.

Now that the time left to me before I cease to see, the fixed world seems even more important than it did before.

Some may have phantasies of taking dire steps to change the course of history, which could shorten their time alive. But, the odds of being successful are far too slim to justify the risk.

Therefore, all that remains for us old geezers is to keep on trying trying to explain better to our successors how it should be possible to ‘lay down all our arms’ and grip our hands more in friendship, than any effort to throw them for a loss at this moment.

When enough humans genuinely begin trying together to make our world a better place, we should have seen enough success to warrant more trying!