Thank you Dak, that is very kind.
I think there's LOTS of kindness out there in the hinterlands. During difficult times in our world, we tend to get overwhelmed and find ourselves in a position that can cause us to lose faith - hope.
I'm not talking religion, although I know how important faith and hope is to many through their religion, or others who actually grow and improve without any religion. It's kind of based on the inner-ness of any individual. Some call that spirituality and not religion. I'm not expressing which may be best or right, just that we all (at least a majority) have something along those lines that helps us in our faith or hope.
But these tough times can be damaging to those. Even so, my upbringing (which for me was great, but not what I adhere to as an adult) spoke about the bad in the world this way...
You cannot know good until you've experienced bad. That's kind of a yin and yang thing, you know, those little black and white symbols that intertwine with each other? Not that the color matters so much, but that the contrast does.
Like puzzle pieces fitting together, the yin and yang is a very simple symbol of what can be. It's even in a circle, like a cycle. It even has a direction of flow in the symbol, like you go through the one for awhile, and then you go through the other for a similar distance or amount of time.
If that's the case, by seeing our world as it is at the moment, it should actually INCREASE hope and faith, because the words hope and faith by definition are kind of futuristic!
Today is New Years Eve. Tomorrow is a new year. Let's not throw our babies out with the bathwater. Let's not jump from the frying pan into the fire. Let's not ummmmm, well you get the drift. I ran out of analogies. Where's Confucius when you need him?
But where there is recognition of problems - that become so bad as to become recognizable to many of us who typically sit on the sidelines and let others take the hits of the event - there comes a time when we SHOULD and CAN get involved. Maybe that's our lesson! An untended garden will not produce healthy food, but will become a weed field. Democracy is the ultimate garden. And these days we need gardeners.
Happy New Year to you all! Next stop? Our rest area - the Bathroom!
