At a turning point

To sum up the thrust of the past few posts, I'd say: if you have no real idea who you are and why you're here, you're most likely making life unpleasant for at least one other human being. I'm not being harsh, I just have a very low tolerance for people who simply take up space and don't contribute even the least to making the world a livable place.

The more conservative of you will be thinking of long-term unemployeds and welfare recipients, but I'm not talking about them. They're not the problem, really. Granted, they may not know precisely who they are and why they're here. In fact, they may spend a lot more time thinking about what happened and how they got to where they are. I don't blame them. Most of them have had limited opportunities and a limited range of choices all their lives. They've learned to manage with all kinds of limitations. No, I've been talking to and I'm still talking to you: someone who has a comfortable-enough life to be reading this blog; someone who is in the luxurious position of being able to decide and choose how much of a boon or bane one is to humankind.

Granted, we're a disappearing species. We are. The ranks of the wealthy grow slowly. Very slowly. Glacially slowly. The ranks of the impoverished, on the other, hand, are growing faster than rabbits can reproduce. Most of you, I'm sure, have never stopped to wonder why. But I can tell you, that is one of the reasons that things are the way they are.

Let's face it: we bust our backsides ... at our jobs, at raising our kids, at trying to get ahead, at paying the bills. We spend inordinate amounts of energy trying to succeed, make the grade, get that next promotion. And while I may be right that it would be great if I took a few minutes to look inside, to find out who I really am, well, the rat-race, the daily grind, the job, the family, the ... just fill in the blank ... really make enough demands on me that I don't get to it as much as I would like. I know. Been there; done that. It sucks. But it doesn't have to be that way. All of that is just an excuse. Really. Those are all excuses.

There's an old saying, "If you want something done, ask a busy person." Why? Busy people always seem to manage. People who aren't busy never, ever have the time for anything. They're always overwhelmed. So, if you're one of the busy ones, you can do it. If not, perhaps you should revisit you self-evaluation. The point is, nevertheless, that if anything in this world is really going to get better, it's up to you to make it happen. OK, you and everyone else like you. We're all the folks in the middle, the ones being squeezed, and we're the only ones left to make a difference.

Because we're in the middle, we have the greatest possibilities, the greatest chances of success. Because we're in the middle, we have the greatest liabilities, the most to lose. That puts us in the proverbial pivotal position. We're not just at a turning point in the year, or at the threshold between inside and out. We have arrived at an existential turning point as well, and I'm not sure we're up to the challenge.