Memorial Day Weekend - 2017

Memorial Day weekend – 2017
 
I will be in Denver Friday, the 26th until Sunday evening the 28th.  to celebrate the graduation of my great niece Samantha.  I may or may not be posting regularly this weekend.  Visiting with the extended family of my nephew Wendell and his wife Toni will be my first priority. I do not often get to visit with any of these folks although I am hoping to visit Samantha while she is attending college at New School in New York.  I am excited for her and her brother who is also attending college.  My brother Ed  will also be there to celebrate this event with his granddaughter Samantha. More than ever I am acutely aware of the world Samantha, Austin, my other nieces, nephews and the rest of there generation will be inheriting.  
 
They will be inheriting a world which is, in many ways, vastly different than the world I and the rest of my generation entered when we were that age. When we were 18:
 

• There were no smart phones, computers, internet or access to other technological tools now available.
• Worldwide there was more violence than there is now.
• There was much less access to medication and other medical treatment than is now available to many,  although too many still do not have access.
• There was even more tolerance for racism, sexism, and other forms of abuse and discrimination.  Overall in the world today there is less tolerance for mistreatment of others but there is still much work to be done to make the world safe for all people.
• There was less global trade of all forms of goods and services in the world and less ability to exchange such goods and services. This applies to weapons as well as medication, medical equipment, food and information.
• Not everyone was judged on the basis of whether they went to college but there was much ranking and judgment of each other.
• If someone did attend college one could work and pay for college, often leaving debt free. This was true even if one attended ivy league colleges.
• There were more illusions (delusions) about the United States.  It was easier to hold on to these illusions.
• There was more trust in the belief in upward mobility as the way to create the perfect life as long as one was of a certain gender, race, class and sexual orientation. Many still pretended that this was true for all people - if one worked hard enough, but “all people” was till an exclusive, often closed club.
• We had little idea of the dangers of smoking, second hand smoke, pollution, and such illness as black lung disease.
• Closets were much smaller for most of us unless one was on a movie set.  We did not know that we needed many sets of costumes, 1000 thread sheets or other “necessities”.
• Most people seem to know their “assigned” neighbors and shared a sense of responsibility for each other. Neighbors did not live on the other side of the track or “the wrong side of the creek or at the other end of the town.  Within the

“closed” neighborhood there was a shared sense of responsibility for children.  The police were known within the community but not expected to be called for every age-related infraction

• There was less opportunity to compare oneself to others. I suspect that this made it easier to be patient.  Most did not expect to be able to purchase a house, new furniture, a new car and other goods when one began their life away from the home of their parent(s).
• If a woman was experiencing domestic violence the minister, priest or rabbi was likely to tell her that if she was a better wife the violence would stop.
• Cars did not have seat belts and other safety devices.   A V-8 engine was a source of pride and not a symptom of one’s disregard for resource limits and pollution.

 
One could, of course, continue this chronicle of changes for many pages and even books, but this brief list reminds us that many of the changes we are gifting to our children are, in the long term, going to result in new possibilities for creating a more just and safe world.  Although the state of flux which the world is now experiencing may be more intense and is certainly harder to ignore as we get minute by minute 24-7 news coverage via all our electronic devices I also think that the world is in the midst of a spiritual revolution.  I am acutely aware that there are many who continue to believe that the God of their understanding is the one true God and that one is called to destroy those who do not accept this “truth”.  It seems that there is even more whose primary allegiance is to a God or a sense of spiritual presence which is inclusive of all frameworks and paths.  This spirituality is, it seems to me more concerned with the science of who we are and the mystery of the interconnectedness of the universe.  We are at a stage of growth in which the meaning or nature of free will and individual and collective morality is being questioned.  We are on the cusp of acceptance of the very real possibility that earthly humans are not the only beings in the universes.  Many of us are both more ancient in our understanding of what it means to be present and more open to a new understanding of what it means to be present.
 
It is still, as Charles Dickens penned,  the best of times and the worst of times.  The young people who are now preparing to assume leadership of the world (universe) with which we have gifted them will have to make a clear choice of whether to embrace the exciting possibilities or the fear of the unknown.  Those who chose the latter will embrace attachments to fear, self-righteousness, power, religion, money, things or other mind numbing substances.  Those who chose the former will embrace the possible, the sunlight, and the beauty of the plurality of gifts which together we can bring to the design studio or dance floor of life.
 
There will be those who seek to label and medicate those who choose to embrace the possible.    They will mistake excitement or anticipation as anxiety; rejection of the status quo as depression or other mental “dis ease”.
 
I think most will choose the opportunity to embrace change, new possibilities and the excitement of what can be while channeling the best of their ancestors.
 
To the graduating classes of 2017 I say:  Welcome to the mantle of leadership.  Welcome to a new understanding and acceptance of the ever-expanding universe. Welcome to a new dance of light, color and possibly.
 
Written May 26, 2017