ORANGE IS FOR FALL

I'm going with an orange font in celebration of Fall. Looking at some of the events happening in our world at present, someone might very well say "What's there to celebrate?" And, of course, I understand that sentiment because there is a lot of restlessness and anger being expressed, not the least of which is that which is now happening on Wall Street, and it's spreading rapidly and extensively. And that's just one thing going on our in country alone, not to mention a multitude of turmoil in the rest of the world. I don't need to go into further detail because I'm sure you are aware of many things through the news.

The truth is that there have always been issues confronting the human family, some worse than others and some seemingly never-ending. Along with that, there also have always been doomsayers of every size and shape. Pacing preachers on TV pointing out biblical passages that they proclaim mean that the end is near; cynics who insist that humanity is going down the tubes; political pundits who contend that "this is the worse that it's ever been;" people having daily conversations on the street or elsewhere that sharpen the thorns of one anothers' anxiety; media organizations, wanting to get their ratings up, turning drama into melodrama.

It's true that things are far from perfect--can't argue that point. It's true both individually and communally. Something else is also true though. In spite of imperfect conditions, it's the only world we've got and the only life (as far as I know) we will ever have (excluding whatever life lies beyond this plane of existence). And our stay here is really quite brief no matter how long we live. As a matter of fact, as I'm getting older that fact comes home to me every once in awhile when I consider that not that long ago I was three years old, then ten years old, then a teenager, then 25, etc. And now, I'm semi-retired; what just happened?

As I see it, it's probably good therapy to let off steam sometimes, but it's not a good place to live permanently. It's not good mentally, spiritually, or emotionally. I like what the Dalai Lama teaches his followers. In the very first sentence of the book The Art of Happiness, he says, "I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness." People can scoff at that and say that that is a pretty shallow, self-centered point of view. And it would be if our seeking was at the expense of the happiness of others. Yet, think how much healthier the world would be if our goal in life was to concentrate not on what's wrong with the world, but what's right with it.

Life and the world and the people within it will never be perfect (that includes you and me). There will always be times when things are worse than another, personally and communally. There will most likely always be diseases, wars, economic downturns, natural disasters, and the presence of evil in the world. That's called the human condition. However, solely fixing our attention on that side of life gets us nowhere. Would you agree? Oh, on the other hand, it does get us somewhere. It gets us into the worlds of depression, hopelessness, futility, and anger, just to name a few.

But life is extremely short, even if you live to a "ripe, old age," as we say.