The Best of Times?

With the  apparent crisis we are told we are in, it would seem a little crazy to state that we are living in great times.  We seem to gravitate toward  facts and figures  from the media that reinforce our negative outlook.  Gas prices, (at almost 4 dollars a gallon!), problems in the middle east and political turmoil in the United States seem to be the common themes these days.   Oh yeah, we are in a recession as well. 

All of this is great news for the part of me that lives in fear and is looking for reasons to stay unmotivated.  When I am looking for a sponser for my negativity, the media is a  great comfort.  There is only one thing missing from the media and other merchants of despair, perspective.

If we zoom out a little and look at not only the so called  problem but also what is being done about the problem we will see a flipside to this crisis.  Compare your personal life with the collective social order we live in and you can see some parallels.  The parallels being  true wisdom and growth have often followed intense pain. The pain is there to let us know it is time to make changes, positive changes. 

For example, take gas prices. Would it even be possible for our government to come together and pass legislation to increase the fuel efficiency on our vehicles if gas was a buck twenty five a gallon?  Chances are that the next new vehicle you buy will be more fuel efficent than the last. 

Would we have such a inclusive dialogs about the environment and global warming if we did not have so many natural disasters along with the gas prices?  The chances of our country and others coming together in the interest of clean air are much greater because of recent events. Ten years ago the chances of getting any kind of reform on health insurance in the US was around zero but because the situation has detriated so rapidly politicans of both parties have at least put together plans for future change.

There are plenty of examples of why we will be a better world in the future because of the pain we are enduring in the present you just have to look beyond the headlines.  What is so encouraging about the problems we are having now is that they have progressed at such a rapid pace that it forces us to work together and come up with solutions that will benefit generations to come. 

I read somewhere that if you throw a frog in boiling water he will jump right out but if you put a frog in luke warm water and increase the temperature gradually to a boil we will not move and die.  A gruesome vision but I think it is a decent analogy on what is going on today.  If gas prices went up a quarter a year we could  be driving around in these gigantic suburban assault vehicles polluting the environment and sometimes taking up two parking spaces. But now we are forced to rethink what we are doing and just maybe evolve in the process. 

I listened to a news broadcast about some affluent folks in LA who own Mercedes and other expensive vehicles are now riding the bus and subway (yes they have a subway) to get to work for the first time in their lives.  Now that is progress.

Brian Blades

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