There are several reasons why I shouldn’t tell you, but here it is anyway. We are allowing others to screw up the only life we will have on this earth. Not sometimes and lightly, but all the time and big time.
Those supposedly in-the-know pundits keep advising, urging, demanding, or warning us about the house we are about to buy, the vacation we are about take, the job we are about to accept, the restaurant we are about to visit, the new car we are thinking of buying, the book we are about to read, the doctor we use, the clothes we are wearing, even the people with whom we are associating. Everything is questionable or made suspect.
Even worse, there is no end to how many times we will continue to be misled or lied to by those you have been told to trust or scammed by criminals who will think nothing of stealing all you have dreamed and worked for. By any kind of measure, whatever good there is in this world is being increasingly counterbalanced by wrongdoing, forgery, and hostility.
All of this is compressed by endless challenges arising from the arrival of new technology and our frantic efforts to cram still more into the 24 hours of every day.
But for just a minute, I’m taking you back a hundred years to my granddad’s eighty acre farm — two-story house, garden, orchard, barnyard, four large fields planted to corn, oats, wheat, or pasture and bordered on one side by some wooded land and a creek rimmed with willow trees. There are pigs, cattle, and chickens that provide meat and eggs.
All of this is governed by Mother Nature which has been looking after this earth ever since time began. Soil, water, plant, and animal miracles are looked upon by sun each day and moon and stars each night.
Granddad grew up, married, then raised a family on that farm. Many disappointments tested the family’s ability to persevere and endure. All of that, however, was framed by the delights afforded by a simple life. Just as Granddad and his family were good to the earth, so was the earth good to them.
The hard part is reading these words while realizing that was long ago and in a startlingly different and innocent time, when clocks and calendars informed instead of insisting. Since then, the world has convulsed into something so complicated and different that the words you have just read can hardly be imagined much less accepted as being true.
But get this. Although we can’t divorce ourselves from every aspect of modern living, it’s possible to refuse or ignore a surprising amount of it. Yes, hurry when you cross a busy street, but don’t hurry to take advantage of a special offer. Yes, buy what you need, but not necessarily the latest version. Yes, you do need to stay healthy, but never assume medicine is the answer.
Also, realize that everybody is being bombarded to the breaking point with information we don’t need or care about and that nearly all so-called news is a mix of contorted accounts, warped opinions, and sensationalized nothingness. Insist that your own judgment be a part of every judgement made for you by others.
Rethink and renew wedding vows, review the values you are teaching your children, be even more neighborly, remain true to your friendships, and ask God for help when the load is too heavy for you to lift, push, or pull.
Understand that underneath that thick layer of unrelenting urgencies, demands, and yells from the world of marketing and advertising and invitations from the artificial, immoral and unlawful, there is another layer that’s simple, clearly logical, and forever rewarding in what it contributes to your task of living the best possible life.
Put your mind to work on everything you read, hear, and are urged to do. Extract only what you need, act only when you believe what you are about to do is clearly beneficial, and lovingly engage with those closest to you.
When needed, serve notice that you know the difference between how others insist you live your life and the kind of life you know is far more enjoyable and fulfilling.
Then, and no matter how young or old you are, or how rich or poor you are, or where or what you are, stand tall and get on with the rest of your life.
