January 2014
IMAGINE
It is another new year.
So go ahead:
Think of what might be, but isn’t.
Ask yourself:
Is there anything in our world, in your world, or in my world that is not. . . but should be?
Or is everything preset? Are each of us simply left by herself or by himself to struggle along somehow and in the end to have no role except to play one’s predetermined part?
Are we simply designed to avoid pain and to seek pleasure?
Do our actions have consequences? Does it matter what we do?
Should we even care as long as we get what we want?
So many questions and yet how we answer them determines the way we choose to set our course in life.
We each think we know what we mean when we say: “Just do what is right.” to anyone who may ask us for advise when he or she has a hard choice to make. Somehow we assume that everyone knows what “right” is. And yet for all kinds of reasons what is “right” for me may be entirely “wrong” for you.
Different beliefs, different values, different desires yet all of us are here upon this same earth. In such a world it is clearly impossible to go indefinitely without conflict entering the picture. So what is required to minimize conflict? And how do we avoid letting conflict rise to a point where raw power and violence seem to be the only pathway to resolution?
Opportunity and freedom are words that come to mind when considering a conflict free existence.
If everyone has the opportunity to obtain the life he or she wants and has the freedom to pursue that opportunity, surely much of the conflict reported in the daily news might be avoided.
So in this new year imagine. . .
Imagine what conditions must exist so that each person may have opportunity and freedom.
Imagine how our own behavior and our own demands place limits upon the ability of others to pursue opportunity and freedom.
Imagine a world . . . “with liberty and justice for all.”
