Speaking of School...

... as I was just yesterday, there is an additional half century of history to be taught since I was in school. The world has changed. There are more names of countries to memorize (as if someone really would) and some of those I knew no longer exist. Some people we looked upon as ‘good guys’ are now vilified. Can’t recall any that were reconstituted into heroes, though – and that’s good in many ways.

Every once in a while a nostalgia Powerpoint presentation will surface listing a lot of the really good things about the 1950’s and we all go “Ahhh, to be there again!”

Right. They don’t mention the fear. For a very short time, after the USSR broke up, the fear was gone. MAD returned to being a comic book instead of Mutually Assured Destruction. Can a text book capture the fear children had when falling to the ground, covering vulnerable necks and tightening eyelids so they’d never look at the light?

The PPSes speak of playing outside and touts evening time. Partly because we were kept away from each other during the day, out of swimming pools because the fear our parents had of polio. Vaccines have removed those childhood fears of invisible diseases and obvious results.

The presentations don’t mention shopping for shoes – nor the x-ray machines we used to looked through to make certain our toes had room for growth. Nor do they mention the radium dial watches that impacted the lives used to create them.

That time can be seen through rose-colored glasses, just as anyone does looking back. Do not miss a moment of today while seeking yesterday with regrets.

Each generation remembers their ‘best of times’ and buries those ‘worst of times’ beneath layers of protection. It would appear, especially now, that one thing is forgotten – to remember the mistakes of the past.

The financial greed of many Americans may have succeeded where Al Qaeda failed. There is righteous anger building within the United States as CEOs negotiate to retain their multiple millions of bonus payments for bringing the country to the edge of bankruptcy, and pushing many of its citizens over that edge.

There remains a promise made to Solomon. Are we wise enough to use it?

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV)