Our "Today" and Our "Tomorrow"

We live in "today." Yes, we all do to some extent.

Futurists may say they are living in -- this by imagining -- tomorrow. But what they imagine is based on what they are seeing and experiencing and (as important) thinking today.

World changing events do occur, but a frank and honest look tells us they are rarely what we, even the most imaginative of us, had expected.

Understanding this is critical, not just to the world as it turns, but to each of us and our own lives. And forgetting or ignoring it is destructive.

You cannot prepare for today -- you'd have to have done that yesterday. And preparation for tomorrow is limited to a) preparing for a wide range of possibilities with the focus on likelihood, and b) being "lucky."

How many of us, for instance, prepared for the closing up of society and the economy brought on by the reaction to Covid 19?

And note that keyword: The REACTION to Covid 19. For much that happens isn't truly based on what is actually happening, but on the perception of the same. -And that perception is for most people greatly influenced by others.

Fish swimming in a school may think that they are free to move where they want, up, down, this way or that -- but the greater part of their movement is determined by the movement of the school itself.

What controls that?

"Currents." "Leaders." Forces unknown.

All around us are currents. Currents in thinking. Currents in feelings. Moving people not as individuals, but as a group.

All around us are supposed "leaders." Influencing. Directing. That as they who claim to be able to predict tomorrow are themselves as stuck in today as everybody else.

"Wear masks!" "Black lives matter!" "Your color gives you privilege!" Those are the currents of the day. Those are the words of supposed "leaders.'

But that is TODAY. Tomorrow all three will be gone. Totally and completely forgotten.

The 'fish' won't even notice. The current of tomorrow's today will be then moving them on to somewhere else. Supposedly new and better ideas. New imperatives. -Ideas and imperatives that most all the fish will follow.

We -- you and I -- are moved by and with these things too. We, like it or not, are in the school moved by that current. Yes,every one of us.

But knowing that is so can make a difference, for then we can live our lives as they actually are -- which means wisely -- in the day's currents. -Making the best of the choices that are actually open to us, not limited by what we are told is open or closed to us. Making the best that each today has to offer. Not fooled, as so many are, into living someone else's life in their today and their hoped for tomorrow.



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Should this be our goal? Really?

A friend of mine cross posted that to Facebook today -- this in the form of someone's "tweet."

My "goal," the original 'tweeter' seems to suggest, should be to get to know him. His history. His culture. His gifts.

Now this individual may have a lot to offer me. I do not know him, or anything about him -- his gifts or his accomplishments --  so I cannot say.  But what comes to my mind -- is this unusual? -- is something else...  It is that this person, or his ancestors, like my own, came to the Western World. -The world that gave us the pure sciences and understanding such as mankind never had known or  benefitted from before -this from medicine and microbiology through microchips and all the way up to space travel.

That I now had access, via these people, to a culture like no other. One that gave us such as the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare, and the music of Bach and Mozart and Brahms and Beethoven.

That from these people -- and now, via them, available to me -- are works of art in every medium. Paintings, for instance, that range all they way from Rubens and Rembrandt through Chagall and beyond. 

That THEY gave us -- all mankind -- Ideas and philosophies of  justice and law that moved the human experience from daily experienced barbarity to an entirely new plain -- and this not just for the few, but for the many.

These are all here -- part of a culture my family (and I expect his) in a sense has "joined.'  A culture and a history truly like none other. 

If I have some obligation -- what the tweeter says should be my "goal" -- that of being "educated"  -- of growing in my understanding as well as my appreciation -- well, does not he?

How's deep I wonder is his appreciation (and knowledge) of any of these things?

Of "history"?

Or of the beauty and goodness of the world that had laid the foundation for the one that he and I are now living in -- must live in! -- yes, along with millions and millions of other men and women.

I do, yes, have much yet to learn.  And respect for the dignity of every person certainly should (and does) play a part in this.

But when it comes to learning?   My "goal" should be to see and appreciate his beauty?  His history? His culture? Really? 

Why?

No, I think it quite the other way around.

That there is much learning to be done.  From those that came before us here.  That it is their treasures I am obligated to learn from and to more greatly  appreciate. Not his


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America's "Clarification" -- A Good Thing

The existing divide in America is being revealed and clarified. That's a painful thing for us as a nation to be experiencing.

"Let's pretend" as a way of thinking has appeal because it feels good.

"Let's pretend" that we as a nation are not being split apart. "Let's pretend" that none of what is happening is truly happening, or that if it is that it really doesn't matter.

But it does.

That is because we will not -- we cannot-- come together again as a nation -- we cannot truly again be America, the beacon of liberty and progress and hope -- until we recognize that we have come apart.

The US as founded was a "Christian" nation. That -- not meaning a religious dogma, but a plethora of deeply held and shared values about mankind's place and obligations -- is the nation's very basis. -The source of its once seen as "self evident" truths.

America cannot be itself -- it cannot be "America" -- if those values and truths are denied, or worse, trampled and ridiculed.

Pres. Trump -- the man he is today as our president -- is standing for the preservation of those values. Boldly. Courageously.

We can stand together with him. Or not.

There will always be some who remain apart. (And there always have been.) -People who live in America, but are not in the fullest sense, American. Who do not share a love for the nation's basic founding principles.  -Those of liberty mixed with personal responsibility.  Who see "the state" as something else. Something over us, not of us.

The question now is how many such there are. And how many of us there are -- Americans. -Those who love the America of the founding -- a free and just nation, based on the law as set forth in our founding documents.

It matters not when we or our families got here. Or where we or they were from.

What matters is where we stand today.

And yes, with how much energy and conviction.

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The Real "Two Americas"

Yes - and we see it all around us. There are two Americas.

No, the dividing line is not race. People of all races are on both sides.

No, the dividing line is not wealth. For the poor and rich, too -- along with the many of us in the middle -- are here again on both sides.

Where the line is drawn is between those who look to the heavens -- and to make like itself heaven. And those who look similarly at hell.

How ironic that we Americans can right now with our literal eyes, as well as our minds, focus on either.  That this very weekend the literal "heavens" are again ours, as Americans and as human beings. Or, if we prefer, we can look into the jaws of fire and death.  At the "Dragon" above -- that beautiful creation of the creative minds and hard work being done at SpaceX  -- this one taking us to new heights and a bright exhilarating future. Or at a more traditional "dragon."  One totally of the earth. One that breaths death and fire.

Yes, it's our choice.

Well, largely.  But some are being forced to look neither up or down, but around them. This with fear and trepidation.

But there, too, there have been choices made. Some live in communities and literal cities that have aspired upward. And others that have dragged themselves downward. And they chosen that course every election day by choosing others whose eyes are affixed on what is below - or on ethereal promises that never pan out because they are not built on anything more solid than wishes and lies.

Dreams are one thing, wishes quite another.  Which we have -- where we choose to look -- is ours to decide.

Two Americas. One of hope, the other of bitterness and hate.

Choose with care friends. Either can be yours.

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"Cool it!"

So yesterdays 'big vid' was an iPhone one of a "mob" in a Staten Island supermarket angrily driving a non-mask wearing woman from the store. It, within mere hours of being posted, had some 6 million views.

I myself found it interesting to see the media equally (it is worth noting) on the left and right, blaming the 'other side', while, again equally, saying such anger was 'understandable.'

Is it?

If so that is not because the actual 'crime' of going unmasked is of such gravity, or that the actual danger this non-mask wearer was bringing into an otherwise "safe" environment was so.

No, what the video actually was displaying is the level of fear, anger and angst being brought into more and more communities. Fear, anger and angst strong enough to make otherwise normal, peaceful, citizens turn into a profane screaming mob. -A mob going after a hapless woman, to drive her from their midst.

Is there a lesson here? Should there be?

I think so, yes. It is for us to, in the common vernacular, "cool it."

And for no one is that message so important as for those of us who like to post about these things. -Be they informal posts here on Facebook, or tweets, or the more formal posts that some of us make in the form of webzine articles and blog entries.

Yet it seems few -- and again, this seems equally true on the political left and the political right -- liberals, progressives, conservatives, Trump haters, Trump lovers -- no one seems willing to stifle their apparent need to increase the level of fear and rile up additional anger.

It is easy to blame he politicians for this -- and yes, they certainly bare some of the blame. But from what I observe they are as much answering the call as making it themselves. (That is what politicians do -- they reflect the people's own passions and fears. -That is quite often the secret of their supposed 'success.')

So no, the blame cannot and should not be placed on politicians exclusively.

There's an old meme that says that when we point a finger at someone the other three are pointing right back at us. And here that is certainly true. For you cannot fight division by calling for yet more division. You cannot quiet anger by further raising it.

I have earlier posted in one of these personal 'my thoughts of the day' posts that my writings are no longer welcome at publications that used to gladly receive them. That at first, as the concerns I am raising here about us not being fear mongers and dividers became a theme, this caused my submissions to be subtly edited. Then such were rejected entirely on the supposed grounds that the publication just had 'too many article on this subject.' And then, finally (just last night) my being frankly told that my pieces on this subject -- my calls for mutual understanding and the importance of quelling the growing anger -- no longer matched the site's "theme and purpose."

Our nation has seen such division before. Back in the 1850s a then presidential candidate had warned the nation that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

Interestingly those words themselves were taken by some to be an intended prophecy. The crowds hearing them saw such as a call for further division -- a call for war. And indeed that is just what history tells us happened. The most bloody war, still, in the history of our nation.

Is that where we are heading again today?

Some think so, yes. That while others firmly say "no." But so far at least few seem willing to even try to quench the growing fear, anxiety and anger. And fewer still seem willing or able to quell their own anger and divisiveness.

You and I, friends, do not individually have the power to change the course of human events. But we can choose to add to these passions -- or, if we think it wiser and better, to instead help quiet and subdue them.

I do not personally share in either this anger or in this pessimism. But *whatever* comes I have determined that I will not add to the growing angst. I will no be its multiplier. -That my words will stand for principle with firmness, but that I will at the same time, to the extent my understanding and ability allow, be a voice for concord and peace. And I here implore others to scrutinize themselves and to make that same choice and determination.

Things are hard enough already. We do not need yet more anger, fear or angst. Not in our homes, not in our lives, not in our supermarkets and no, not in our nation



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We -- Our Thoughts, Feeling, and the Ever Present Here and Now

There is a "truth" that we, even the most 'truth seeking' among us, can fail to see. It is that we are all influenced by the proverbial here and now. Where we are, physically, yes. But also in our mind (who is influencing us) and emotions (ditto). And that "now" means today. The present. And our own personal experiences that give all the above mentioned things their context and meaning.

This is so for me as much as anybody. My physical and emotional circumstances lead me to be optimistic and largely untroubled -- well, apart from the theoretical and philosophical. (I am at least as troubled by the increases in 'snark' and outright nastiness, and what such is doing to the quality of our lives, as I am by the actual effects thus far of the virus.)

But I live in an area with few cases of the virus -- none that I could even name -- and have a life (as I have in earlier posts described) that is little influenced by others. -Not just what they *do*, but equally what they *think.*

If we by physical circumstance, and as much by our nature, are more greatly influenced, then our outlook will be different. There is no "right" here -- and by that I equally mean that word as in 'what is so' as "right" in the sense of moral goodness or justice.

Those who watch TV are seeing and thus mentally living in a different world than me, for I watch no TV -- neither "news" or talk show stuff. So just as one may see a different world when looking out of their window or going out of their literal door, one will also be seeing and relating to a different world within their head and imagination.

All those 'worlds' are in a personal sense equally real. You have yours. I have mine. Each of us has his or her own.

And we each "see" tomorrow based on our own, personal, yesterdays and todays.

The famed year of "Woodstock" there was a more fatal viral outbreak going on than there is today. But life then simply went on with most of us then taking little notice.

Why was that?

Because people back then had seen far worse calamities -- and the inhabitants of today's world have seen and experienced so few that to many what has come to be called "micro aggressions" has for some time dominated their thinking and feeling. And these are (or were until now) seen, believed, and accepted to deserve that depth of emotional space.

My point here is not to challenge that, but merely to point out that such is like a person to whom a "cold day" is 40 degrees f will see "cold" differently than one who has experienced long winters where minus 40f is a real and experienced possibility.

One sees a 40f day coming and gets out a sweater. The other gets out a pair of shorts and prepares to celebrate a heat wave.

And so it is for each of us. Experiencing -- not just physically, but in our heads and hearts -- a different world in this time of virus.

One will see the need for yet more shutdown, the other for throwing off at least some of the now commonly accepted restraints.

This can be made "political," but on a more essential level it is not. It is just each of us, and all the rest of mankind, living out our own lives based on our own experience and circumstances.

The above being so we must make room for one-another. In my eyes It is our failure to do *that* which we should most fear. Far more than the virus.


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Sides? What "sides"?

In the world of political dreamers there is one TRUTH.  In the real world many ideas need to coexist -- this to match genuine tensions and conflicting "truths."

And the above is not just true as regards political theory, It is so to one degree or another about every 'reality' about us.

Take, for instance, the words and thinking of Dr. Fauci  and the words f those who say it is absolutely essential that we start to again open up both the economy and our personal lives.

Does a tension exist between these ideas?  Absolutely!  Is one side "right" and the other "wrong"?  No.

When Dr. Fauci speaks to his concern that even small openings bring risk of additional outbreaks -- even serious ones that effect many people  -- is not "wrong." But neither are those who point out that more lives could be damaged -- indeed, likely will be! -- if fear of the fact keeps us in lockdown.

Yes, both are "true."  Both are real dangers. 

These are dangers that sincere politicians have to face up to -- but that 'false' politicians -- those more interested in gaining political advantages (yes, possibly on BOTH sides in this debate) -- prefer to deny.

"We are right; they are wrong." "We care about people, they don't." Some on  both sides are shouting that.

I say: "No!" Neither side  can claim absolute right here -- neither closers or the openers. The dangers are real. oth those of reopening. And those of staying closed.

No decision will be free. Neither decision will leave lives untouched. -Some for the better, some for the worse. And that with infinite unknowns that will determine which was wiser and which less wise in each individual case.

This basic understanding is what in truth will separate the ideologues from the real world doers. 

There are sides here, but there are no "right" sides.  Just tough decisions needing to be made -- made equally with boldness and humility. -Two qualities needed but less and less seen in American affairs..

Let others "take sides."  Let us decide to listen and reason and speak and act with those same two qualities in place. Boldness and humility.  Working together towards a common goal -- that of making America again a united, vibrant, healthy, land of freedom and liberty for as many as possible.

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