And now what?

Those of you who know me won't be surprised by the fact that I don't particularly care for other people telling me what to do. I know I'm not alone in this regard, and I'm certainly not the most adamant about it. I simply like it when others give me the benefit of the intelligence and ability doubt.

And yes, I've spent the better part of the last month trying to outline what I think are some of the reasons why things are not as they should be. And, yes, one of the primary reasons for lack of betterment, if you will, part of the blame, if you will, can be laid squarely at our own feet. We don't do anything about anything, but we still complain that things shouldn't be the way they are.

You can't have it both ways. If you want things to be different, you have to be different. If you can't take being different, you've got a bit of an unsurmountable problem. You might consider having yourself institutionalized. You're not really doing anyone any good, not even yourself. Still, apart from such drastic measures, I thought that the least I could do is point in a couple of reasonable directions.

First, get a backbone. Everybody I know has a spinal column, but there are very few people I know who have a backbone. Stand up. Lift your head. Look people in the eye. Open your mouth. If you don't agree with what you're being told, say so. If you are feeling pressured, say so. If you think you're being intimidated, say so.

Second, use your newly found backbone to reinforce others who seem to have trouble finding theirs. Set a good example. Stick up for what's right even if you are not directly involved or affected. Just a little support can go a long way in getting others to stand up straight too.

Third, be honest. No fibbing, no lying, no tricking, no deceiving, no glossing over important details, no stretching the truth, no uncomfortable omissions. Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

Fourth, do what's right. Take all that you've accumulated over the first three points here and put it to work. Whatever you are doing, you have to firmly believe that every other person on the plant can do the same thing, for even less reason that you're doing it. (A lot of you will think you've knocked off 1 to 3, but a lot of you are going to choke on this one.) If it's right for you, it's right for everybody, and I don't care what it is you're doing.

And finally, get involved. In what? Anything. If something's bothering you, find some others who are bothered by it too and get together. Talk about it. Think about it. Decide to do something, then stop talking and do it.

We don't need a huge government program and we don't need some church or sect telling us what we should or shouldn't be doing. We should know. If we don't, we don't deserve to go out in public unchaperoned. There are those of you who will be quick to tell me that either (a) this is what you do all the time anyway and/or (b) these couple of little things are going to make any difference anyway. Well, this is what I have to say to that:

A. It's not what you do, it's only what you think you do. Take a step back, give yourself the same once over that you give everyone else, and I guarantee you, you'll see the difference.

B. You haven't done it yet, so you don't know if it will make a change at all. Try it first, evaluate it after you've tried it.

Again, it's all not all that complicated. It can be rather simple ... if we want it to be.

What does it mean?

Over the past few posts I really haven't said anything that most of us don't know or suspect to be true. And a lot of you are simply asking yourselves why there is such a discrepancy between what we know and suspect and what we experience. Let's face it: it really doesn't look like things are getting any better "out there". I'm not saying the answer to the dilemma is simple. It isn't. What I am saying is, the approach to a "solution" is. Please note: I didn't say it was easy, I said it was simple. Nothing worth having comes simply.

No, the reason why things aren't getting any better, even though we know deep down what is wrong, is because at heart, we're probably just frightened, little cowards. Oh I know that sounds harsh, but how do you say that gently? I don't know either, that's why I said it that way.

Let's face it: Americans know they live in a violent society, yet they still scream for more violence (harsher prison sentences, more guns, more suspicion of others). We all know that the banking industry literally got away with murder, not just theft, and we let them get away with it. We know that capitalism as currently practiced benefits the smallest minority, but we shout down, insult, and condemn anyone who dares question its validity. We in the Western democratic societies all know that we're being systematically stripped of our rights and our freedoms, and most of us just sit by and think that it's not up to them to change the system.

And that's why all of us share in the guilt for the crimes and the blame for the situation. It's not somebody else's fault, it's ours. And as long as we don't own up to it, we're being irresponsible on top of everything else.

Why don't we act? Why don't we speak up? Every time we think, "well, I got mine, everybody else has to see how they get theirs" we retreat into our cowardice. Every time we complain about the government intruding into our lives, we are showing our fear. Every time we argue that you can't fight city hall, we are declaring our impotence. Every time we simply say nothing at all and only think our part, we betray our integrity. And every time we say, "it's not my problem", we betray our humanity as well.

You have to be able to say "no". You have to want good things for others as well as yourself. You have to stand up and speak. You have to stand up and be counted. Wake up. Get involved. Do your part. It's that simple. It's not easy. It's simple.

What? No, again?

Hmmm ... now how did that get in there? This isn't the first time that disturbing little word "no" has come up. In fact, I've talked about it several times in the past (see References below). Previously, the topic of discussion was "freedom", that is true, but it would seem to me that the ability to say "no" penetrates deeper into our psyches than we might like to admit.

Saying "no" can, in certain circumstances, provide us with a necessary degree of freedom, but we can need to be free to do some things, but we also need freedom not to do others. This little word is not only an assertion of our selves, it is also a means of defense against unwanted actions of others, especially, as we have seen, in commercial affairs.

Granted, simply saying "no" is not going to keep you from getting robbed at gunpoint, but let's face it, the chances of that happening to me here in Germany are far lower than were I living in the US. It's unfortunate that it is that way, but that's the way it is. If, however, my fellow Americans - even in the big cities - were more community oriented, more open, more social, it wouldn't be that way.

(And before you just shrug me off as completely whacked with idealism, take some time and seriously think that idea through, to the end ... stop for a moment and go back over what I've been saying for the last few posts ... give some serious thought about how little things can combine and accumulate into something significant. It's always been my contention that we simply give up too easily.)

What I'm talking about more than anything is, when you get right down to it, is awareness. We often think we're doing something, but in truth we're not. Sometimes we think we're being honest, but we're not being completely honest. Sometimes we think we're treating others as we would like to be treated, but we're not. And sometimes, we don't really think about anything at all: we're simply on auto-pilot, we're in default mode, we're just too tired, too stressed, too you-name-it to make that little extra effort. We need to make the effort though. We need to be more awake and more aware, and we need to simply try a little harder each and every day.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and we're not going to change the world overnight, but if we never start, we'll never achieve anything.

References

1. What Does It Take? (2012-01-16)
2. And What Happened Here? (2012-01-18)
3. Just A Story? (2012-01-20)
4. Should We Duck For Cover? (2012-01-22)
5. Really Free? (2012-01-26)
6. Getting To No (2012-08-01)
7. How Do You Get What You Don't Want? (2012-10-06)
8. Maybe We've Got It Backwards (2012-10-08)
9. Does He Mean Me? (2012-11-23)

An honest world?

I know, I know, that's how all of you behave all of the time. That's why the world is such a wonderful place. I hate to be the one to have to ask, but are you really being honest about it?

Honesty, it turns out, is a bigger problem that we think. It's obvious that some companies produce knowingly low-quality, even dangerous products. We've seen how dishonest business and banking can be. We know that people cheat on their taxes, knowingly cut corners, don't exactly lie but also don't tell the whole story, and we have all experienced that twinge of conscience at telling even what we would like to think are white lies. There are so many opportunities during the day to "fail" in this regard, you sometimes have to ask yourself why you even try. I know that you aren't any different than me in this regard, and all I think we need to do about immediately is consciously try to do it less and less. Honesty is the best policy, and why shouldn't we try to do our best?

Being cheated, gipped, pulled over the table, conned ... these are awful feelings. The people who do such things are certainly not living up to their own potential. But does that justify us to seek vengeance or to simply set matters straight? What is more, why is our default assumption about strangers and others that they are knowingly and consciously trying to take advantage of us?

It is clear to me - I'm realist enough - to know that there are people who haven't even started with the sorting-things-out in their immediate environments, but the question is whether we need to fight fire with fire. I don't think so. Did it ever occur to you to simply say "no" if you feel you're being pressured into something you don't want to do, be it from our spouse, our significant other, our children, parents or the insurance salesman? Why can't we just say "no" when we feel we are being asked to do something we really don't want to do?

We can't assume that everyone is not going to do to us what they wouldn't want done to them. By the same token, we don't have to lower ourselves to that level either. We need to be more awake, more conscious, more aware of what we do, but also what is being done with, or to, ourselves. And when it is not to our liking, when it doesn't fit into how we would like the world to be, we have one simple option.

Just say "no".

A decent world?

For me it is obvious that I need to go back and pick up on an earlier theme: a decent world.

Whether we do or not, depends largely upon us. Let's face it, when the news is full of violence, bloodshed, cruelty, despair, and destruction, it's simply hard to put on a happy face. The point of the last few posts, however, has been that it need not be that way ... or, perhaps better, it need not be that bad. We're not going to wake up tomorrow to a peaceful world, but if we want one, we have to start somewhere, and about the only person in the world that you have any possibility of directly influencing is you. If you want the world to be decent, then you have to make your own little world decent.

Now, all of you are now saying, "of course, my little corner of the world is decent; what are you talking about?" That's a good question, but I would have to counter, if that's the case, why is the world in such bad shape? We can't have it both ways. My suspicion is, first, that our own little worlds are not quite as tidy as they could be, and, second, that we tend to stop our thinking about the time we get to "good friends", and not beyond. In other words, where things start breaking down is getting the overlaps between "little worlds" to function better. This is where we get to the level of neighborhoods and communities. We need to focus more attention. It's at this level that all of us simply need to get more involved.

You should know that I'm not talking just about the school my children attend, nor the congregation (or religious group) that I may be part of. Those are part of it, but only part. There comes a point, even in our own little worlds, where so-called "others" (perhaps even "strangers") get involved. This is the interface that is more problematic. Sure, we can polish up and fine-tune our interpersonal relationships (family, friends, and just beyond), but it's the circle just beyond that which demands more attention. This is the area in which all of us could do better.

If we think back less than a month ago, we had a great time celebrating a birthday, and the guy's whose birthday we celebrated gave us a simple tip on how to handle it: don't do to others anything you wouldn't want them to do to you.

The "other", the "stranger" is "my neighbor" too. S/he is the one who simply be next to me at the time: the person sitting next to me in the doctor's office, the clerk at the store, the delivery person unloading the truck, the immigrant at the end of the block ... it could be anyone. And when you see, when you encounter, when you interact with whomever it may be, you need only ask yourself one question: what am I doing with this person that I wouldn't want someone else to do with me?

Whatever the answer to that question is, just don't do it. In the end, it really is that simple.

Am I missing something?

There are some of you reading this who I know are thinking, "well, he's not even got to the important stuff yet; we're not a bunch of carefree creatures romping around in the Garden of Eden, we're serious, working adults trying to make ends meet in a rough-and-tumble world; this is all a bit pie-in-sky, don't you think?"

Well, actually, no. I don't think so. What I've been trying to make clear is the fact that if we possess something that could be called "human nature", then it is something that would occur naturally, right? That makes sense to me, and if we simply look at our biological background and the resulting social constellation, it becomes clear that our "nature", if you will is to cooperate, share, mutually protect, and care for one another, and this is something we fail to recognize all too often.

The skeptics among you, of course, are ready to tell me that what those free hands, opposable thumbs and tool using and making ability is all about is ... well, what is it really? In all this talk about nature, our nature, and our innate biology, there has been no mention of trading, dealing, commerce, or economics. That's a proper observation. Truth be told, there's none to be made. We don't have any economic genes. Whether we like it or not, humans are social creatures first, economic creatures later. This is also the point that Karl Polanyi argues in his book The Great Transformation. I mention it only because the priority is what is important.

We don't, and no longer can, live in a state of original bliss. We have complicated our lives to the point where we can no longer produce, by ourselves, what we need to survive in today's world. A lot has happened since the Garden, that's for sure, but it's still us out here in reality. We humans haven't changed all that much, we have simply rearranged and reorganized our environments (which is part of our ability to adapt, it should be remembered) more than other creatures on the planet. In doing so, however, we have forgotten, or perhaps only obscured, who and what we are: social beings.

Others matter. We can do for others and others can do for us. In this way, all of us can do better than any single one of us can do. To my mind, this is a good thing. I know it all sounds rather idealistic, and perhaps even utopian, but it is a simple point of fact. Even today, with everything else buzzing around our ears, we can refocus our attention on what matters most: our family (we all have something in there that could use sorting out), our friends (we're just as fickle as they are), and our immediate community. It's a place to start, and easing any tensions or fixing anything broken there can go a long way - a very long way - toward making the big, bad world we live in a better place.

Again, how hard can this be?

Really, from the bottom up?

I don't argue that I have simplified my discussion of "human nature", if we want to call it that, and that I've focused on an aspect of our nature - our consciousness - that our animal cousins do not share with us to the same degree as it is present in ourselves. There are, however, a couple of other biologically determined features that also speak for our differentness:

1. our digestive tract, from teeth to colon, is suited for any kind of food;
2. we're built not for speed, but for endurance;
3. we have speech organs that allow for highly differentiated communication possibilities;
4. we walk/run upright, freeing our hands for other tasks/activities;
5. we have an opposable thumb, facilitating tool use and production;
6. we also never stop learning and can learn through imitation, oral instruction, demonstration, and a variety of other modes.

When we consider these additional features, we find that we're also exceedingly adaptable creatures. We are the only species who can be found living in all the climate that the planet has to offer. We are everywhere and we have found ways to accommodate ourselves to any environment. Considering in particular items 3-6 in the list above, we find additional reinforcement for our social proclivity: we function best in a group. It is the group that can find and eat anything, anywhere, almost anytime, because we can communicate well and make things that help us adapt. It's a kind of virtuous circle.

We are, in a word, quite amazing creatures, and we are so, and hence so successful as a species because we can do something better than any other species can: we can cooperate. I know, I know, lions are successful in prides, and chimpanzees often hunt in troops, wolves and orcas run in packs. But, we can adjust the size, intensity, level of commitment and leadership of our groups on the fly, a moment's notice, with a minimum of effort.

This is just the way we are, but when we look around these days, there is little left of this nature to be seen: we've walled ourselves in, we communicate very little, we avoid learning more often than not, and we have trouble simply getting along. We don't need to turn back the clock and become hunter-gatherers again, not at all. We simply need to be aware of our strengths and build on them, and wherever possible, avoid our inherent weaknesses.

We've got a great foundation to build upon, so why do we work so hard at tearing it down?

Why is it all so tough?

If you've been following along attentively for the last couple of posts, I think you will agree that when we distill things down to their essence, the world around us, reality, really needn't be so complicated. Being a social being, humans should find it rather natural to look out for, share with, and cooperate among a fair-sized network of relationships. What is more, due to the overlapping and interpenetrating nature of these personal networks, we have a lot more in common with a lot more people than we may have originally thought. So what's keeping us back?

This is a question that a lot of people have spent a lot of time researching, contemplating, and working on. It's simply difficult to find the answer, the one, single answer, the answer that will satisfy everyone. Some think it is because we are sinful by nature (the Western religious answer), others that we cannot resist and are overwhelmed by our desires (the Eastern religious answer), still others because we want to ensure the survival of our own genes (a biological answer), or that our self-interest is more important than cooperating with others, unless it serves that interest of course (an economic answer). These aren't all the answers, naturally, but they're the ones we most often hear (in one form or another), but all of them, believe it or not, do have something in common: they are based on the assumption that there is something wrong with us: we either suffer from some innate weakness or are somehow helpless in the face of some selfish force.

Doesn't that strike you as odd? It does me. Why should our most fundamental assumption about our nature be that there is something wrong with us, and most notably something against which we stand little chance of prevailing? And, if you ask me, I think I also know why this is our first avenue of approach at an answer: it gets us off the hook. Yep, we don't have to really do anything, because, well, how do you go against your nature, how to you overcome nature, if we're programmed a certain way, what could any of us do about it?

Truth be told, in the end, it is only up to us. We're the only ones who can do anything about anything. At the very core of our nature, we see that since we can ask questions, we should; and since togetherness, social interaction and cooperation are existentially fundamental to our being, we should be including others in our thoughts as well.

No, we didn't ask for the job, nature simply gave it to us. In my view, it is simply time that we owned up to the fact and started taking the job seriously. And the precepts that help us do just that are the ones our recent Birthday Boy made us so aware of: love your neighbor as yourself and don't do anything to anyone else that you wouldn't want them to do to you. Again, how hard can that be?

How else can biology help?

Only part of the biology of being human was addressed the last time. It is, I believe, the most important part, but there is something else we would do well not to ignore. Besides asking questions, which is simply part of our nature, there is something else about us biologically that we shouldn't overlook: human beings are social creatures.

Again, this is something that all of us know, but it is not something that we have high enough in our consciousness most of the time. Not only do human offspring demand more attention and are longer incapable of living on their own longer than almost any other species, we don't give up this sociability when we get older. We are biologically designed to live in groups, not alone. Granted, there are those who choose, for whatever reason, to separate themselves from "the group", but they are exceptions, not the rule. They are examples, I would add, that we can, if we desire so strongly enough, overcome our own innate biology. We can commit suicide if we want, go on hunger strikes, even though we know we could die; we can refuse human contact, but fortunately, that's not what most of us do, or want to do. Instead, we seek out others, because that is part of our nature.

Being social animals, if you will, wanting to be with others, should give us pause to think. The egotism, the selfishness, the greed, the individual violence that we witness, the striving for power and domination, are really, when you think about it, contrary to our biological nature. Humans have developed to cooperate, not compete, whereby I'm not saying that every form of competition should be disparaged. No, competition, like anything else that we do or feel should simply be relegated to its proper place in the overall configuration of our being. The idea of "others" is primary, it is closer to who we are than ideas of domination, suppression, oppression, or anything else along those lines.

Being, by nature, group creatures, there are some limits that we must acknowledge as well. According to current thinking, the "social environment" of the average human being is about 150 others. That's how many names we actively remember, it's the size of a very extended family or a neighborhood or a small community. It's a group size in which we can still feel comfortable and live without undue stress.

What is so fascinating about this fact, however, is that theses groups of 150 overlap. That's the idea behind the six degrees of separation. When you stop to think about it, if everyone in your circle of 150 listed all their six-degree relationships, and I did the same with my circle, how long would it take until we really had included the whole world? My guess is, not long at all.

It would seem then that maybe, just maybe, we really are all in this together.

Can biology help us?

I'm pretty sure you weren't expecting this to get scientific. After all, what has biology got to do with the miserable state of the world today. No, I'm not going to lecture you about environmental destruction, global warming, pollution, or whatever. There are more than enough people who can handle that a lot better than I can. No, in keeping with my theme of simplicity, I only want to recall to mind some things that all of us actually know, but we don't think about very often.

There are those, and not a few of them being scientists and reasonable people, who would maintain that human beings are, at bottom, just animals. Now, I'm also not going to go off about humanity being the "pinnacle of Creation" either. My point is much simpler: yes, we share much in common with our animal cousins (our DNA is 98% the same as chimpanzees), but we are, nevertheless, different. Every animal (and plant, of course) on the planet is unique and special in some way, and each species is biologically programmed to do what it does best. That's really how it works, and there is little we can do about that. Still, human beings have capabilities and abilities that none of our animal cousins have, and it is toward these that I'd like to direct your attention.

I know some of you are asking, "are we really all that different?" but I would maintain the answer is "yes", but this answer has two parts: "how?", and "what does it mean?".

My first piece of evidence is that last question. We can, do (and I would say, must) ask what things mean. We know of no other species to date that thinks about, considers or searches for meaning. Yes many species communicate, in a variety of ways, but we've yet to find any other species asking about anything. Humans can ask questions. Humans can question. And if nothing else makes us different from other species, this certainly does. This does not mean, however, that we're better than any of the others. Please note: I said it makes us different. The corollary of being different is where we find the challenge, however: since there is something that we can do that no other species can do, and since each species on earth is designed to do what it does best, then it only seems logical to postulate that since we can question, we should be doing it to the best of our ability. I, personally, don't think that's too much to ask (pun intended).

When is that last time you questioned something? When is the last time you asked yourself what something really meant? If you haven't done it for a while, I can only recommend that you start practicing again. It's like any other capability that we have: if we don't use it, we lose it; what rests, rusts.

My advice, then? Question everything.

Do we want to live in a decent world?

That's really the question. I know lots of you think that "hey, it's a big, bad world out there and there's really nothing I can do about it", but that's nothing more than a lame excuse to only worry about yourself and perhaps those around you. In truth, by taking that attitude, you are really saying "screw the rest of them, I've got to see how I get mine". Pretty sad when it's put that way, isn't it?

Well, we're in pretty sad shape as a species go, so it's really pretty much what we should expect at this point in time, but is that what we want, say, for the coming year, or decade, or century? I, for one, think it's about time that we start living up to our potential ... or, if that's really not possible right away, at least start trying. I'd be satisfied with that at the moment.

Reality, the world around us, well, it all seems so complicated, but as we saw in our discussion of the recent holidays, a very few rules can get you a long, long way. The world, reality, are actually pretty straightforward - for everyday use; it's our societies and economies that are complicated beyond all recognition. We need more than ever to understand the difference between what is complex and what is complicated.

We shouldn't let ourselves be confused by those who have an interest in keeping us that way. Just because someone can't figure things out for him or herself doesn't mean that we need to follow suit. The best advice I got while doing technical documentation turns out to be the some of the best advice I ever got at all: KISS - keep it simple, stupid (or silly, if we want a slightly kinder version ... the point is the same). We needn't over-simplify of course, we only need to make clear to ourselves that whatever we do as humans tends to become more than we really need and want, often because we simply decide too quickly. As the old saying goes, "good things come to those who wait".

So, lesson in simplicity No. 1: do we want to live in a decent world? Well, if the answer is "yes", and I'm willing to bet all of reading this do, then all we need to do is make it decent. See how easy that was? No, really, the very first thing you need, especially something like this, is to want it to be so, to desire it, to make it one's own purpose. I'm not kidding. That's the first step. We need to be aware of this want, this desire, this purpose in every waking minute. When we do, we can always ask ourselves: is what I'm doing what I would want every other human being to do? And then to become of aware of what it is about what you are doing that will make the world a decent place.

Now, admit it: is that really all that complicated? I didn't think so. I'm not asking you to do any more than be awake, be aware, and to be conscious. How hard can it be?

Don't we live in a decent world?

Actually, no.

Oh, I know that sounds harsh, but when we look around, what we find is that every one of you reading this post has a decent life, by most standards, but what we ignore when are taking time to pat ourselves on our own backs is that the majority of human beings on this planet live in cruel, harsh, destructive, torturous, violent, and deadly environments. If we answer the question from a democratic understanding of majority decides, then, no, we don't live in a decent world.

Before some of you start blaming the victims, just stop and consider: the planet, at the moment, has all we need, is capable of bringing forth all we need for all of us to live a decent life. I'm not talking about fabulous wealth, I'm talking essentials: there is enough food, clothing and shelter to go around. With a little thought, there could be productive things for everyone to do and it would be possible to ensure that every person had access to healthcare and education. We live on a miraculously rich planet, but somehow we've got things all screwed up.

There are, I know, a lot of folks who believe that they are entitled to more than others. I also know that there are a lot of folks who believe that others owe them something, even if they don't deserved it. I also know that most people who think that way wear suits, believe they work hard, and who tell themselves every minute of every day that they are better than the rest of us. They're not, but I know they exist, but people who are ill like that are in need of a physician, not our scorn.

We are constantly reminded that the world is getting smaller every day. If that is in fact true, then we no longer have the luxury of thinking that all those others are so far away, what are their troubles to me?

Since the world is getting ever smaller it can fit into ever smaller places, like our heads, of course, but more importantly, our hearts. We need to change how we think about things. We don't have to go through mind-boggling contortions and brain-numbing philosophical argumentation; we needn't think we have to give up things nor that someone else is just waiting to take it from us. All we need to do, really, is change our perspective, change our view, and change our minds.

I'm a simple person and believe we should start with simple things. Take a step back and realize just how small the world has become and realize that there is more than enough for everyone, and recognize that most of us don't want all that much really. There's more than enough to go around, on that basis, so why don't we start thinking about getting it there.

We could live in a decent world, if we wanted to, but first we have to acknowledge that we're all in this together.

Epiphany. Had one lately?

Today is Epiphany. Perhaps the highpoint of Christmas, especially for those in Southern Europe (and affiliated cultures elsewhere), but traditionally, of course, it is the official end of the holiday, in particular Christmas, season. (If you didn't get that, I discussed it last year, so you can read up on it here.) If it is the Day of Manifestation, though, what could that possibly mean for us here and now?

Beside the celebrations and frivolity, today is the day when it would do us all well to take a moment to turn inwardly and ask ourselves about our own manifestation in the world: are we as we would like to be? are we to others what we want to be? do others see us as we wish to be? just what kind of presence are we making in the world?

These are nice touchy-feely exercises, to be sure, and for that reason they are probably not taken seriously enough. I'm not the one who would maintain that we should always try to live up to others' expectations of us, but we should at least be aware of the effect and impact we have on those close to us and with whom we come into frequent (and perhaps not-so-frequent) contact.

On the other hand, we should be just as aware of how we're seen by others, so that we can at least compare the images and play that game we all loved as children: finding the differences between two pictures. I say we should be as aware, but I also know how difficult that is. As far back as 1785, even Robert Burns (in "To A Louse") pointed out so aptly:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

Yes, it takes some effort, but we're given so many opportunities to try it again. Today, as I said, is not just as good a day as any. In a sense, that's what today was made for.

It's Epiphany today. Have you had one lately? If you look, you just might find one.

Too bad the Mayans screwed up

There were a lot of you who sighed that sigh of relief on 21 December, when you realized that Mayans had got it wrong. You're not fooling me. I heard you.

OK, maybe it wasn't the Mayans, maybe it was just those fun-seekers who wanted the Mayans to be right. Don't get me wrong, it's not like we don't try often enough to 86 the planet; in fact, we're getting pretty good at it. No, there were just a lot of you who were glad that you were allowed to stay around for a little while longer. We should really ask ourselves, though, whether we really earned, that is, deserve, this additional chance.

One satirist characterized last year as the "Year of Living Stupidly", but I'm afraid that was the least satirical part of his piece. It was a year of damn near abject stupidity. Don't believe me? What about the legal spat between the US and Russia carried out on the backs of handicapped children? What about the civil war in Syria? Or, how about the saber-rattling going on in Israel? It looks like the Arab Spring got pretty wintry in Egypt, don't you think? Or, what about that star-spangled freakshow the Americans called a presidential election? How about throwing in a little mass murder (Newtown) or the ongoing violence against young people? And there was certainly no overreaction to Occupy protests and the like. No, worldwide, I think, we had plenty of opportunity to show how ill-suited we are for the title of "Crown of Creation".

I'm personally not sad to see 2012 fade from memory. It's getting ever more difficult to get through to anyone, and the amount of energy that one has to expend to simply get another's attention is getting to be burdensome. Everybody I run into seems to have a reason for anything and everything that's wrong, but not a one of them has stepped forward with a possible solution, primarily because the moment they step forward, everyone else starts shouting them down and telling them why that solution couldn't possibly work.

Sometimes I think we could simply call 2012 the "Year that Reason Died", because if there is anything that I miss more than anything else, it's reason in the public arena. It just doesn't seem to be in favor anymore. I have never experienced a year in which so many words were thrown at issues, problems and events, and which were heard by so few. Some folks don't want to hear, that's become clear, and some can't hear any longer, I suppose because the bleating of nonsense is just too hard to overcome.

Yeah, I'm having my moments when I sort of wish the Mayans would have been what they were hyped up to be. I would have liked to have seen a new world. Who knows how much longer this one is going to last?

A whole new year

Well, here we are in a brand new year. Actually, it's a whole new world in fact, what with the old world having come to an end on 21 December last year ... or didn't you notice? Yeah, that was pretty much of a let-down, wasn't it? I've come to expect much more of apocalypses, but maybe I just watch too many movies. Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I didn't at least wish all of you the best of health, peace and happiness for 2013; you're going to have to do your part of course, but I sincerely hope that the coming year is a good one for all of us.

Let's face it: the last one wasn't a very good one, was it? Murder and mayhem, war and rabid saber-rattling, unsuccessful and stolen revolutions, an absolutely brutal American presidential campaign, and not a single problem solved anywhere. Well, at least no big global issues. At bottom (and if we're not there, we're damn close), we're not a bit better off than we were 365 days ago. And as the old saying goes, if things aren't getting better, well, they simply getting worse.

We're still in the holiday season, of course. The 12th Day of Christmas isn't until the end of the week, so we've still got time to build our reserves and our resolve to make the coming year one worth living. We've got a lot of work to do, but if we all pull together, we still stand a chance. But, I'm pretty sure most of you still don't know what we should be pulling for. I think it should have dawned on you by now, but in case it hasn't, I don't mind saying it again: these end-of-the-year holidays have less to do with a particular religion (though that has been the lastest starting point) than they are an opportunity for all of us to turn ourselves around and get ourselves headed in a more positive direction.

It really doesn't matter if you're a non-believer or a believer, and it doesn't matter which flavor or belief you prefer. The guy's birthday which we take as the reason for the season certainly didn't care, so I really don't know why we should make such a big deal of it. We're all in this together. That "this" is everything that counts: this life, this world, this planet, this environment, this society, and last but least this economy, too.

We can do better than this folks. We don't need all the rage, the hate, the strife, the war, the killing and the oppression. We don't need it at all. But as long as we're willing to tolerate it, as long as we're willing to put up with it, we're going to have it and more.

It's is, in the end, up to us: you, me, those folks over there, and those we've never met. It is up to all of us. We've never had a better chance. It's a whole new year. I say we go for it. Who's up for it?