Will mankind survive? Who knows? The question I want to put is more searching: Who cares? It is clear that most of us today do not care - or at least do not care enough. How many of us would be willing to give up some minor convenience - say, the use of aerosols - in the hpoe that it might extend the life of man on earth by a hundred years? Suppose we also knew with a degree of certainty that humankind could not survive a thousand years unless we gave up our wasteful diet of meat, abandoned all pleasure driving, cut back on every use of energy that was not essential to the maintenance of a bare minimum. Would we care enough for posterity to pay the price of its survival?
I doubt it.
Published in the New York Times Magazine...1975!
To say nothing here about our concern for the spiritual health and well-being of our brothers and sisters...born and unborn.
Tuesday 12 February 2008
What's Saved is often Lost
I don't save anything. My pockets are empty at the end of a week. So is my gas tank. So is my file of ideas. I trot out the best I've got, and come the next week, I bargain, whimper, make promises, cower and throw myself on the mercy of the Almighty for just three more columns in exchange for cleaning my oven...
Throughout the years, I've seen a fair number of my family who have died leaving candles that have never been lit, appliances that never got out of the box...
I have learned that silver tarnishes when it isn't used, perfume turns to alcohol, candles melt in the attic over the summer, and ideas that are saved for a dry week often become dated.
I always had a dream that when I am asked to give an accounting of my life to a higher court, it will be like this: "So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven't spread around?"
And, I will answer, "I've nothing left to return. I spent everything you gave me. I'm as naked as the day I was born."
By Humourist Erma Bombeck (as quoted by Leonard Sweet ibid p275)
Throughout the years, I've seen a fair number of my family who have died leaving candles that have never been lit, appliances that never got out of the box...
I have learned that silver tarnishes when it isn't used, perfume turns to alcohol, candles melt in the attic over the summer, and ideas that are saved for a dry week often become dated.
I always had a dream that when I am asked to give an accounting of my life to a higher court, it will be like this: "So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven't spread around?"
And, I will answer, "I've nothing left to return. I spent everything you gave me. I'm as naked as the day I was born."
By Humourist Erma Bombeck (as quoted by Leonard Sweet ibid p275)
On life and living...
Sister Mary Martin Weaver has been a Catholic nun all her adult life. At the age of 55, when many of us begin to think about retirement, she began thinking about athletics. She began training and now has won 44 gold, silver and bronze medals in the Rocky Mountain Senior Games and the US National Senior Olympics. Her specialities include snowshoe racing, speed and figure skating, basketball free throws, shot put, ice hockey, and the 5,000 metre race walk. She said,
These words from Leonard Sweet's book Soul Tsunami (p267) are inspiring, encouraging and challenging all at once - the call is to never give up (to quote another great!) The call is to never stop trying, but to push on through all sorts of self/society imposed barriers through to new realities and then beyond!
People have gotten flabby, and I don't mean just physically. Anything that's too much, people just don't want to do. But there are no rewards in anything unless you try. Age should never be a barrier to full participation in life. What's most important is to enjoy life to its fullest, to do things for and with others, and never, ever be afraid to stretch your limits.
These words from Leonard Sweet's book Soul Tsunami (p267) are inspiring, encouraging and challenging all at once - the call is to never give up (to quote another great!) The call is to never stop trying, but to push on through all sorts of self/society imposed barriers through to new realities and then beyond!
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