STRETCHED TOO FAR?

I never thought I'd make it this far in life. I was sure that I'd be killed in a stock car racing accident and I was okay with that. But now, since that didn't happen, I've had to think about more of life than I cared to. They say perspective is clearer the greater the distance you are from where you started. I don't know about clearer but for sure it's more informed ...actually TMI-Too Much Information. I feel like I've been stretched too far. I can't imagine what people thought about life who lived in the centuries of little change. Just think how many only knew horses and ships until the late 19th century. After awhile, life had to seem a little static. Then it all started to change, rapidly so as compared to the previous years years of history. I often wonder what a young, and there were several, Civil War veteran thought about WWI had they lived until then. It had to be quite a stretch. But over the years since then it's been an unbelievable amount of changes and developments for many people.

As a personal example, while still a teen, I was talking to an older city couple who moved into our rural area about how horses were used to do the different kinds of farm work when one of them asked, "So... how old are you anyway?" I think they meant to be funny but such was my experience. My earliest memories of farming began at the end of horse drawn era. Mainly due to my grandfather's refusal to get a tractor. His horses were named Dick and Don. I could ride Dick but not Don. He was a bit ornery. From then until the present, there have been plenty of changes (or advances) in farming and implements. So now, my memories conclude with my neighbors' equipment that has heating, air-conditioning, satellite positioning and several other needed accessories. I just have to sit down in front of my computer to marvel at how far we have come and ponder on how far we will go. But that's just in the physical realm. ...Not so much in the mental, emotional, spiritual and social realms. Compared to previous times, like two world wars before the middle of the last century, the last 150 yrs were quite full and accelerated with an an increased struggle for control and a larger fight for possible world domination, similar to Pinky and the Brain, Communists, Authoritarians or Vladimir Putin and the other Fascists.  

Technology, invention, discovery, and innovation out strips all else. Perhaps a good reason why some put all their eggs in the science basket. But I'm not about to believe that we only live in a material world. However, the immaterial world is so greatly contested that we can so easily create a hellish existence for far too many people. We have a long ways to go to where our immaterial aspect is able to determine the best usage of our material aspect. The Golden Rule or similar understanding can be found in almost all cultures and religions daily life and human interactions barely reflect that. Many times to the extent that the opposite understanding is the norm or even justified even more so or more consequential in the larger world. As an example, we can see that the mixture of politics and religion is lethal. Yet we continue on as if it wasn't.

It's not as if some progress hasn't been made, thankfully it has.   I'm still idealistic enough to hope that a majority truly do want a better world. As J.R.R. Tolkien said, "But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps the greater." But oddly, any progress made toward equality, tolerance, acceptance, compassion and all other virtues needed for a better world or human community can be, and is, reversed with interference and changing circumstances. Perhaps it's a two steps forward, one step back kind of dynamic. It seems as if one day, further advances are going to make little or no difference because we can't get out of the gutter of our insane beliefs, maniacal behaviors, knee-jerk responses, dominating selfish concerns, pervasive addictions and idealistic expectations.

I often wonder what the world would look like had humanity mentally, emotionally, spiritually and socially kept up with the progress made in the physical realm. Some, who live in their delusional little worlds, believe that they and those like them have kept up or are more evolved or are more woke, or more more spiritual or more intelligent. The prevalent sense of superiority belies the harsh realities the human condition which fits a 'better them than me' mentality. I really doubt if there's a special, people, tribe, religion, nation, or hemisphere when it comes to the fact that we all live on the same planet. The difference in which we might think we are different doesn't justify working only to make our own little Patch of Earth a better place to live and accumulate wealth by whatever means.