In these troubling times of name calling, swearing, lying, and cheating, embracing dictators, murderous regimes, and foreign adversaries by our president, it’s important to take a step back and realize that life is not about politics. Life is about pursuing contentment, knowledge, and love. Gaze into the heavens and see the plethora of stars and feel humbled. In that mass of stars, earth is but one planet among billions. How fortunate that life emerged here and evolved to such a point that we humans have created art, music, culture, languages, and writing it all down for future generations.
Literature, whether fiction of nonfiction creates a world view. Imparts a slice of life to remain forever in the annals of history. Fiction can give us insights into the past, like Gone with the Wind, or what the future will be in the minds of those living the current era like Blade Runner. Sometimes fiction is prescient like the works of Orson Wells, or Jules Verne. Sometimes just flights of fancy for amusement like The World According to Garp or with political overtones like Alice in Wonderland or like my latest book When a Stranger Comes...an allegory on how greed has corrupted all aspects of modern society.
We should all take joy and comfort in how we humans have had great thoughts that have lasted through the millennium, great discoveries in science and medicine. We can read about the ideas of Plato because he wrote them down, we can see the miracle of science by watching our TVs, working on our computers, carrying computer/phones in our pockets. In just my life time, I have seen all these modern wonders come to pass. When I wrote my master’s thesis it was on a typewriter, data keypunched into a mainframe. As a young girl, I had no cell phone to call for help when my car broke down.
Right now, I can look out my window and see beautiful trees and grass, blue sky, and breathe fresh air. For now, nature seems to be enduring, eternal, and brings us peace. A walk in the woods cheers our souls. A sighting of a deer brings joy. We must cherish this amazing evolution of self-aware life on this lonely planet. We are the keepers of this gift. We must not take it lightly. But we are seeing it start to slip away in our lifetime.
I am confident that when this evil government is brought to an end and we are able to once again trust our leaders, then Americans will focus on what’s necessary. Protecting our earth and all of its species, including us, from extinction. So that future generations can read all about the marvelous history of humanity, warts and all.
