These things I believe...

In response to a Facebook post by Greg Tennant on March 4, 2024

Greg Tennant:

Funny though how it was the same old same old since the early days of cowboys & Indians and medieval or Roman armies running towards each other in two great waves to crash into each other with a lot of flailing dust and swinging arms, and it even climaxed in a good old fashioned one-on-one fistfight. It's always, always, always the same.

James C. March:

Oh ye of old age wisdom! I agree! And it's not just the movie that is always, always, always the same.

I have come to respect the power of systems beyond my understanding, such as genetics, or social organizations of our own creation (church, state, business), or the greater universe/god. As I play out the final chapters of my own drama, I am humbled at these realizations.

I remind my ego of three things: 

1. Though my lifetime seems very important to me, in a thousand years I will be lucky to be a one-line entry in a genealogy chart.
   
   
2. Though my choices may have infinitely small impact on the future beyond my lifetime, my choices, as part of the aggregate, are infinitely important.
   
   
3. The only lasting impact my life might have will be through my interaction with others, so I must continue to encourage myself to see beyond my world and into theirs.