Reality Begs Recognition

I’ve written this blog for over 6 years. I do it to keep rein on my sanity. So many things happening all at once distracts focus on all of them. What does each happening mean? What does it foretell for the future? And then, that’s just one item; what of all the others?

Each has a meaning, a value. It will affect something else, like ripples on a pond’s surface. When ripples intersect other concentric ripples begun by other happenings, we have a network of happenings and ripples. A network of chaos.

Precisely in such moments totally different happenings occur. Which is more important? Which demands immediate attention? Which is forever, and which not?

All good questions. But none possible for answer. No. there is no proper answer for so many things happening all at once. At some point, we throw up our hands and deal with what is in front of our face. That’s the issue that gets our attention. We have no choice.

Oh, but we do!

We can ignore all of them and see how and where they wind up. At least we will have more information to work with under that scenario. Or we can scan all the issues and prioritize them. What is their value relative to one another? Surely, we have some time available to ponder that question. Once done we have a good idea which items deserve our attention early on. Attending to them will make all the rest a bit easier.

Think of FEMA and first responders to any emergency. They confront chaos at the start and sort things through, dealing with the most important items in priority order. That’s the management approach we need to implement at times such as these.

Times such as these? What times are we speaking of?

Well, now, that’s a golden question. Let’s see if I can shed some light on a possible answer or two.

Our times are marked by natural disasters that foretell worsening conditions. Global warming is one such disaster. You may not believe it so it doesn’t matter to you. But with melting ice caps come rising sea levels and flooding in coastal areas. That’s the minimum result if global warming is a fact. Another fact will be larger and more powerful storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes. Dry weather in some areas will turn forests and grasslands into kindling for forest fires and raging prairie infernos. We have witnessed both in 2017. And floods once the rains do come and fall on burned areas with no absorption capacity from trees and plant life.

The results of global warming will be lived through one way or another. It doesn’t take belief in global warming to have to face the facts once they alter your life.

We have undereducated citizens at every turn. Schools are not turning out logical students; some, but not all. The result? A work force unwilling and unable to adjust to changing circumstances and challenges.

An inventive society – one that is curious and creative with the unknown – builds new futures from raw needs. An uninventive society leaves new ideas and breakthrough discoveries to other countries and peoples.

We are witnessing this shift in global culture. We are seeing public sentiment move against education and research. We are experiencing a backlash toward science and logic. At times it seems America is walking away from the competition. If that is true, then one wonders if Americans are giving up on themselves? Is this our new reality? A nation of wimps not willing to dig in and do hard work?

Here are just some of the challenges we could respond to and master for our own good and for competitive economic gains in the global economy:

·         Answers to global warming

·         Creative sources of new, unending energy; clean and healthy

·         Housing alternatives that support community life and social interaction

·         Career development that brings each worker to the creative playing field and capable of life-long career shifts and re-creation

·         Life-long learning which maintains mental acuity and creativity for the long term

·         Transportation means that increases movement of people without clogging roads, garages and landscapes

·         Food production in previously unproductive soils (deserts and mountains)

·         Sustainable living conditions – unpolluted soil, air and water

·         Focus on happy, healthy people

Each of these topics holds a motherlode of opportunity.  Interesting. Life-giving. Productive. Useful. Profitable. Both here at home and in other nations.

Why not answer the call of challenge? Why give in to chaos?

Which reality would you rather be a part of?

December 5, 2017