It's 9AM
It may go without saying.
But sometimes it needs said.
We are on a precipice and the world is about to change.
Maybe it’s always felt like that.
Can you imagine someone born in 1870 thinking about 1923?
The memory of the Civil War would still be fresh in the mind.
Not that they participated, but they were children of the War, raised by men and women who witnessed it.
They would see the end of the Victorian era, the start and rise of the automobile replacing horse.
Radio. Movies.
A World War to end all wars that started in eastern Europe.
They would have heard about revolutions and soldiers killing children in damp dark basements to end lines of succession.
A thousand little changes that added up to a world vastly different from the one they grew up in.
I would imagine it would be the same for a child born in the 1950’s.
I do not have to imagine what it feels like for a kid born in 1970.
I have lived that change through 2022.
Now on the cusp of 23.
Listening to the news go on and on about disaster, and hurricane and flood and tornado.
About war in Eastern Europe threatening to go nuclear.
About gas cars being replaced by electric.
VR replacing television and the decline of all western civilization based on a number of factors we can’t quite control.
We are on a precipice.
I just can’t decide of what.
I went to a retirement party last week.
A County Judge who spent decades serving the people of Eastern Arkansas was calling it quits.
He was moving on to become Mayor of a small town, population a few hundred, and spending time with his grandkids and focusing on community service.
There was a slideshow about all he accomplished in his time on the bench.
A long list of service related activities.
Building detention centers.
Building youth programs to keep the detention centers empty.
Building charity programs to keep those same youth fed, and in school and even scholarships to send them to the community college that was hosting the retirement event.
It was impressive, made more so by the fact I knew the man.
He spent a lot of time working to change the world in a city that tops high crime lists across the board because some people can’t see that a world of possibility exists.
The best part for me was a reminder.
Lee Greenwood singing I’m proud to be an American.
An anthem adopted by many to mean something other that what it is.
Which may be the interpretation of every song ever sang, meaning that meaning is in the ear of the beholder.
I’m sitting at a table listening to how one man decided to make his small part of the world a better place one accomplishment at a time, and thinking about the words to the song.
If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start over, at least I’d be here, in a place where I can work hard to determine my own fate.
I am paraphrasing, of course.
Lee Greenwood rhymes much better than I do.
But you’ve heard the song.
You know the intent.
It might even give you pause or give you chills to know that no matter what happens in this world, there are opportunities.
If we are standing on a precipice of change, more opportunities will present themselves.
And they don’t have to be life changing or life altering world events.
They can be small little opportunities in our own backyard.
I pondered my own long list of tried to do’s and plan to do’s compared to the retiring judge.
He has 23 years on me and the thing that surprised me was how old he was when he became Judge.
My age.
How this list of things he did for his community, building big buildings and bringing commerce to the city and helping the disenfranchised youth learn about ways to escape patterns.
It all started after.
After he started a family, and began his law career, and after he spent time being a lawyer, and business owner and more.
He spoke at the podium of his plans for the future.
An outline of twenty more years of service, of growth for his cities, for his family time and even more community building.
His “retirement” is just moving into a new phase of work.
Work of a different kind.
It reminded me of the choices we are faced with every time our world changes.
We can bitch about the wind, or adjust the sails.
And if the wind won’t work, we can take to the oars.
Sometimes I feel like I work very hard for very little progress.
At least that’s how it feels.
Sometimes I feel like I’m adjusting the rigging with one hand and rowing with the other, and the Viking longboat I’m on teeters on the edge of the map.
Then I try to remember that I’m not the first one going where here there be dragons.
And that I am in a place in the world where it’s probably easier to build changes than in any other country.
The world is about to change.
It is always changing.
What it becomes is up to you.
I’m advocating for kindness, empathy and gratitude.
These are the things I must work the hardest at doing.
What about you?
Here are a couple of things for you today:
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