With each new decade of my life, my perspective on various issues changes. Have you found this to be true as well? The things we focus on and fret over when we’re younger seem so frivolous, and the things we didn’t realize were so important, really are. Kinda makes me wish I could have sent my younger self a note or two or 100. I sit here now and wonder – if I am lucky enough to live to be 85, what notes would I send myself now?
About eleven years ago when my daughter had been lying in a hospital bed in a coma for about two weeks. I took a half hour break from searching for any signs of her coming back, the whirring of the machines, the reading of the respiration and heart rate numbers, the squeeze of a hand. I left her room in the ICU and sat on a low wall outside, watching people come and go as they bought food from the trucks parked in front of Yale in New Haven. I couldn’t ever imagine life to be “good” again for any of us. I was horrified, I was angry, I was absolutely in some form of shock. I remember my whole body feeling as if it were in fight or flight mode every second of every day. Besides the hundreds of silent prayers I recited over and over again for a restoration of my daughters health, the one recurring thought was – if only I could have a snapshot of our life five years from now… with my daughter in it, whatever that would mean.. I would be OK, we would be ok.
Thankfully, thankfully… everything would be ok in the long run. We are not exactly what we were before, but in some ways perhaps we’re better for the hard work and triumphs we’ve achieved as a result of that horrific accident.
With the Orange Scream in office, on a different level I am once again absolutely horrified at this place we have come to in our political environment. I find myself sitting on the proverbial wall looking out over the sea of people, wondering how we could have possibly elected a man with his history and temperament and wild ego to such a position of power. His latest tweets in the new year (just three days in!) are so alarming, he could be destroying a 70 year era of relative peace. That he doesn’t see how destructive his words are, that his supporters don’t see how erosive on so many levels his mentality is, well…. Once again I long to see that snapshot five years from now.
I mentioned the HBO series, Game of Thrones, in my previous post. Throughout the series, there has been a distant threat to the known world of the seven kingdoms. The threat has become more prominent as the series progressed. They are called white walkers – dead people reanimated by their ruler – the Night King. They were initially created as a means of protection by well meaning creatures, but with their numbers now in the millions, they are a significant threat. They show no emotion, they have no goals or apparent motives other than destroying what lives. They are simply a force of nature, the equivalent of a natural disaster. How many countless threats do we face in the real world, how many could we overcome through mutual cooperation? Think about it – Two big threats to all of our well being – we could collaborate to stop climate change or nuclear proliferation, which has the potential to destroy us all. This is absolutely obtainable. The problem lies in our own petty squabbles. We lose sight of the big picture as we’re consumed with our various greeds.
Right now, as season 8 is filmed for Game of Thrones, the setting is a version of this conflict where the characters will have to work past their deep-seated grudges and work together to defeat their common enemies or they’ll die. I believe we are coming to this place in our history. If you don’t think what’s going on out there is that serious, then you haven’t truly been paying attention or you’re blinded by a party affiliation, whatever that may be.
Oh, for that snapshot five years from now… or even 20.. to know that we will be OK. Not exactly what we were before, but in some ways perhaps better. I pray the good people will keep doing the hard work it will take to get us to that better place across all party lines. I’ll do my little tiny part to contribute to the betterment of our society – each salty drop of water contributes to the vast sea, after all. I hope you’ll join me in doing the same.
It’s a new year, folks. Let’s make it a good one.
