Another Year,

Same Old,

Same Old

I've seen a lot of years come and go and have learned that they are all different and all alike. They all start with great expectations and end with some accomplishments and as many failures. There has never been a time in my life when there has not been at least a dozen wars going on. I cannot recall a time when some of the world's population wasn't being terrified by some despot leader or slaughtered by some group with vague political objections.
Every year has seen new and miraculous discoveries, many of them beneficial to mankind, some of a highly destructive nature. On the brink of growing human organs that will save lives we also stand at the doorway to remote controlled wars and "better" nuclear weapons. Every year sees corrupt politicians shaming themselves and their sacred trust. And here, in America, I see ideologues on both sides unable to think or logic clearly as they spout their party's line, no matter how insane it might be. Forget about consistency.

I live in a world where people run into burning buildings to save a child while others abduct and abuse them. I live in a world where our divisions along political and even religious lines crowds out the possibility of peace seeping in. I watch the children of my country grow obese with little hope of out living their parents while I see foreign news photos of starving children covered with flies.
All my life I've watched green spaces disappear while more and more crap appears on the rivers and lakes.

Soon we will begin a new year, an arbitrary division of time that allows us to believe that things will get better. For some, it is a time of new beginnings. That's fine, if they do something to make it happen . For me, it is the annual reminder to sit with myself and ask what it is I have done that has made a positive difference, however small, in this world. Have I made a single life better, happier, healthier? Have I alleviated or eased some one's suffering or taught a youngster a valuable life lesson? Have I been in integrity with friends and family? What do I wish I wouldn't have done, and what will I do next time in the same situation? And so on. In reality, this is a thought process that I go through constantly, not just when the planets tell me it is a "new year".

New year's resolutions are often short lived. They can be feel-good thoughts used to erase or avoid looking at what hasn't been working in our lives, in our world. Maybe it is time to try something different. Sermon over. Next post will, I promise, be less droll and more uplifting.

Paddle safe...

DS