Okay, a bit of a cryptic Subject Line, here's my point:

As we come up on the New Year, it seems we are being bombarded by an increasing amount of propaganda lately about some catastrophic calamity waiting just around the corner to pounce on us. Well, maybe something wicked is waiting for us, but I don't really see as that is any different from yesterday, or a year ago, or a decade ago. Y2K seemed just as imminent and just as gloomy, and when it came and went we still got caught off our guard a year and a half later on 911. As a society, we are still pretty low on the evolutionary scale I think. Sometimes it seems we are even moving backwards.

There remains, however diligent we may think we are, an inevitability to our existence, both individually and socially. Life is not eternal, and as much as we would like to ignore the outcome of life, sooner or later we are apt to reach the end of our rope. It is confusing to me how surprising that end seems to come for some people; as if they expected the outcome could ever be any different. In the grand scheme of things, an individual life is extremely brief, so much so that timing shouldn't be so much a consideration as we've made it out to be. Sure, we all want to live long prosperous lives, but how much difference does that really make? I've always been more inclined towards quality rather than quantity, and I think that 50 years of living a life envied by your peers has to be superior to a hundred years of frustration, fear, or just plain apathy.

If life, then, is not based so much on longevity as on content, then I would think that our efforts ought to be expended more on accomplishing great things that leave an impression as long as possible after the fact. Since we can discount the inanimate and perhaps even the non-sentient from the equation, as neither seem much interested in our doings, then I would conclude that life primarily is to be lived for the benefit of the individual to whom it is ascribed, and secondly to all those to whom they might interact positively. For it seems that positive interaction is the only form which benefits both parties in the whole, whereas negatives invariably diminish the experience for all involved.

Carpe Diem is a great concept, and each of us should make the most of the time we have as it is doled out to us, but a prepared mind will be better suited to capitalize on each opportunity as it presents itself. So it is advisable that we make good use not just of our alloted time, but also of our God given, singularly unique talent to reason a means of exploiting the one resource which we cannot ever hope to replace.

I for one elect not to sit around and worry. I will plan and conspire so that I am as reasonably well prepared as my lot will allow. I will also realize my limits and work to expand them without penetrating the net, so to speak. I will endeavor to count daily those things which are truly worthy of my time and effort, and discount the distractions heaped at me by the modern media, no matter how spectacular or terrific they may pretend at. That way, if the world for me does come to an end tomorrow, regardless the method, I will face it with the satisfaction of knowing that for every day prior, I did all I could to fill my time making the most of it.

I think that is about as much as any of us could hope for. In a couple hundred years, I don't reckon any of us here today will be of any distinct consideration to whomever may or may not be around then. So make the most of what you have. Don't waste any more time today worrying about tomorrow than is really necessary to make sure you are ready for it, if it comes. That's as much as any of us can hope for, and probably more than most of us deserve.

Happy New Year