Many troubling issues in our world today. Home, work, family, world, across the board. There is so much going on that we can easily reflect, recognize and understand that we are living in some of the most historic times in human history. If it seems a little scattered today, I’ll acknowledge that I am thinking about more than one thing today. I started writing the other day for this post and landed on Memorial Day as the day I finish it up. If you decide to continue reading, you may find a few zig zags now and again. Regardless, its that kind of post! Here we go..
My generation (Gen-X) has had the driver’s seat for a while now in global matters, politics, and corporate leadership. Honestly, I expected more from us but to be fair, I do think we are caught in the middle of a rock and a runner. Meaning, the older generation is still hanging around dragging ass on things while the younger generations are trying to accelerate to 1000x miles per hour on everything. My generation seems to be the group holding things together. That said, the world overall is seemingly mad and I mean mad in the context of the REM song Mad World.
I’d like to think it’s a Fiona Apple morning though as I listen to Across the Universe, her cover of the Beetles song. Many of us walk through our days like this, don’t we? Meanwhile, in reality, there is a lot going on around us and our world is being changed although on the surface we may not see it.
With this in mind, there are three things I’d like you to consider as you read this post.
- You have the ability to change the world.
- You may never see the results of the impact or change that you had on the world and others.
- Blink, it’s over.
Sam Harris recently had a podcast talking about death. If we were to think about death or be mindful of our own ending almost all the time, would we behave differently?
A few different people have been quoted as saying “The villain is the hero of their own stories.” The relative importance of this is that even if we knew of our impending doom or thought about our death, some of us would still behave in a way that may not be beneficial to all of us. Think about our older politicians as an example. Is Mr. Putin leaving a better world behind as he is surely closer to the grave. I’d be willing to bet he believes he is a hero for his people.
So, the things we may think we are doing that MAY be good or for the betterment of others or ourselves, may not be good. We may not know, as we may be blind to our own impact.
I’ll leave it at this today. It is a question for you to consider yourself. This is also something that I will consider. If I do something thinking it is a good thing to do, or the right thing to do, is it? What is the overall impact? Will I get my desired outcome? Will this outcome align with what other people want or need?
Today we thank our service members for the ultimate sacrifice they made for our country. We can honor them moving forward by finding words and ways to avoid endless conflict. We should seek to work together as a people to fight wars against famine, cancer, illness and threats to humanity. We shouldn’t be fighting with each other. Finding peace and reasonable freedoms is the goal and it is possible to live in a united world.