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CONSIDER THIS
Friday Aug. 9, 2019
Point of view matters.
Or does it?
Facts are facts – shouldn’t matter whether you see them up close or from afar, because proximity doesn’t change truth.
Or does it?
What people have done, and why, results, impacts – we consume news and research – that helps understanding.
Or does it?
Consider …
Assassination, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Killer and others convicted. Bad deed, perhaps only way to shake up Yugoslavia in 1914, but WW I was triggered. That event might have been avoided, but was war inevitable?
Consider …
Earthquakes happen daily. As do floods, forest fires, lightning and tornadoes. Some might be managed, but few prevented – yet we spend fortunes to ‘prevent forest fires’ and ‘predict earthquakes’. Wouldn’t it be easier to not live in a forest or build near a fault line?
Consider …
Climate changing, inexorably. 4.3 billion years warming and cooling, ice ages and millions of seasons have taught (do we learn?) to not build on flood-plains or near cliff edges, that life is easier in warmer places (but then consider all those bugs!). What can we change in our short lives? Big picture, not much. In our lives – plenty?
Consider …
For the whole world, it is unlikely anything we do will change this planet or history. We are all so insignificant it seems to hardly matter. Yet, when we look at every great achievement, it didn’t happen by accident – someone did it. Like winning lotteries, we all know how remote the odds, yet every time we read about a big winner, they actually had a ticket.
Consider …
Unless we do something great or life-altering, we are just hanging around until we are grains in the sands of time – cells and flesh recycled like many billions before us. We don’t want to be the Archduke or the guy who shot him. Doing something valuable, of which we are proud, that changes things for better, does not require we get credit or are fondly revered. When we are done, when we are gone.
Do what you want, but have a good reason. Don’t be wasteful. Fix what you see needs fixing. Don’t hurt others. Help those who need help.
Don’t worry if nobody else sees it, just see it through. Don’t worry if nobody else sees it, just be sure you see it through …
Give more than you get, take less than you need – look up and ahead, smile more, laugh more.
Reader feedback:
Hope it’s a great day for you today Mark. Many, many happy returns and best wishes on your significant entry into our world, BR, Calgary, AB
Happy birthday Mark, hope your celebrating. LH – Lethbridge, AB
Happy Birthday, mighty Leo! Hope you get a chance to run around in your birthday suit, JB, Edmonton, AB
Happy Birthday Mark!, DM, Ladysmith, BC
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