Bird Droppings April 5, 2010
It is about tomorrow

Last Friday midst the various children passing through my room a discussion about how we view the future began in earnest. My contention was we modern folk do not look beyond this current moment very often. We tend to focus literally on now. I thought back a few years about 1999 or 2000 I was working with indigent families and was involved with a mother and son finding them shelter and food. The mother was involved with “The Church of NOW”. At that time this program was a big evangelical church catering to young adults and children. I was interested in the name “The Church of the NOW”, when so many focus on after.

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose.” Lyndon B. Johnson

I have never been a big fan of LBJ especially since it was during his reign the draft put many of my friends and myself included into a potentially life threatening situation of Viet Nam. Myself I failed the physical, it seems color blindness, epilepsy and a chronically dislocating shoulder were not in demand in the army. Sadly seven of my close friends from high school either enlisted or were drafted and were sent to Viet Nam. Each died in the war or in war related situations.
I have mentioned the Viet Nam memorial in Washington several times previously and finding their names on the wall still was one of the most significant moments in my life. But LBJ’s quote has bearing today as over the past few weeks several times in conversation and discussion the past has come up. There is nothing we can do to change past events. We cannot alter the period in Europe when Hitler practiced genocide anymore then we can in Africa as various factions in power kill off less powerful factions. Uganda was a good example as a recent film portrays where the tribe in power methodically erased smaller or less powerful tribes openly till a civil war changed the power base and reversed the situation.
Human beings it seems on all levels want and crave power. How do we sitting in our cul-de-sacs and on our back porches grilling out alter what has been for thousands of years. Nearly four years ago we went to war in an effort to change a government now we are setting our sights on another country depending on who you choose not to listen too anymore. Politics and the media being what it is. “We can not change yesterday but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” I wish this quote was less about competition, it seems that ingrained aspect of humanity may be both a blessing and a curse as we look ahead wanting to succeed wanting to win.

“We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.” Arthur Schopenhauer

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” Dr. Laura Schlesinger

As I sit wondering about various ideas and thoughts so often wanting to be like everyone else is a base cause of our competition, wanting to have what everyone else has. Dr. Laura occasionally will throw out a good thought and we seem to as humans even when we do not have the correct tools or materials want to make something out of something it isn’t. That desire to be number one is ingrained in us from day one, to be the best the greatest, and it is difficult to change or alter.

“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness’s of other people.” Carl Gustav Jung

“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” Mohandas Gandhi

I used both of these quotes this week previously and I think for today are good ending points. Not until we truly acknowledge our own darkness can we deal with the darkness of others Jung points out. We so often will pass the buck and see our faults in others and never in ourselves. Gandhi uses that phrase passed on by many philosophers; what we think we become. We are what we choose to be and what we want to be and until we have an image of greatness we will never be great. Until we have an image of selflessness we will always be selfish. Until we can see ourselves over coming prejudice we will always be biased. Until we can look beyond the past we will never see the future. Please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird