Tag: the future

Flying Cars

 

I’m sitting in a hotel room in New Hampshire, on a business trip to spend a few days with my biggest client. I’ll spend the next few days making machines move, the aspect of software writing that I enjoy the most.

A few minutes ago, I received a message from a friend in Ghana. He’s a doctor, building a hospital clinic in a rural and underserved portion of the country. I asked him, a few days ago, what he needed most desperately. He tells me it’s reinforced steel bar and concrete. (I’ve watched him and his workers making their own bricks, baking mud in the sun. Apparently that doesn’t work for every aspect of construction.)

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You should never look back. It only puts a kink in your neck. –Alvin Segal Abraham heard the future calling to him. Sarah had died. Isaac was unmarried. Abraham had neither land nor grandchildren. He did not cry out, in anger or anguish, to G-d. Instead, he heard the still, small voice saying: The next […]

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Wisely anticipating disbelief, I provide a link to Şili’ye özgürlük, which is Turkish for Freedom For Chile. I’ve never seen a Turkish phrasebook but if you do, I’m pretty sure you won’t see this phrase in it. It’s the title of a song. Which someone – in Turkey – actually wrote, and performed. Guess he […]

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The In-Between Times

 

In a sense (although some would argue otherwise), we are in that in-between time as a nation. It’s difficult to pinpoint when we “began the ending” of our nation, but when the Left became more blatant in their accomplishments, expectations, and efforts, the period of our naivete came to an end. And we entered the in-between time.

Now we are keenly aware that our democracy has been wounded by outliers that somehow made dangerous inroads to our governance and culture. We watched them do it, and tried to ignore that things were changing, particularly in education. We trusted our teachers and our schools to “take care of” our children, but our reliance on them was misguided. The time may have existed when we could count on them, but we didn’t notice when the education agenda for our children became their propaganda mandate.

Into the Great Unknown

 

What we can say with certainty about the incoming government is that the values it brings into office are antithetical to our own. We know that: it’s a matter of public record, and we understand the fact of it even if we may be unsure of the magnitude of our disagreement. The incoming administration and the new Democrat-controlled Senate will wish to transform the country in ways we loathe. This much is certain.

Beyond that, we don’t really know very much. Systems composed of people are complex, responding, and adapting in ways that are hard, often impossible, to predict. Sometimes a single individual, event, or virus can shift the entire political equation in unforeseen ways. We just don’t know; those who speak with certitude about the future demonstrate a lack of wisdom proportionate to their confidence in the predictions they make.

Why Do We Assume the Worst?

 

Yesterday, I was in a state of high anxiety as I worried about the outcomes of the election. Fortunately, I was commenting on a post and expressed my concern, and the suggestions, comfort, and humor that were shared were such a great relief for me and for others. We laughed and made fun of each other in the most caring way.

Today, the darkness has descended. There have been all kinds of evidence cited that demonstrate that the Democrats are cheating. Doom and gloom engulf our environments and psyches. I’m not here to criticize these attitudes, but they motivate me to ask a question:

Why do we assume the worst?

It’s Going to Be a Bumpy Ride

 

As the doorbell rang, I let go of the napkin I was fingering and hurried, then slowed down, as I walked to the door. Ted watched me from the other side of the room and smiled reassuringly. My heart felt as if it would leap out of my chest. I took a deep breath, paused at the door, put a smile on my face, and said a brief prayer. As I opened the door, Valerie was on the other side with a silly grin on her face.

She said, “Hey you!! How have you been? She stepped in confidently and gave me a big hug. It felt great, and we held onto each other for an extra moment and then stepped back with tears in our eyes. She saw Ted and called out, “Hey, big guy!” He grinned back.

“Well, I’m lots better now that you’re here. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

Creative Destruction, the American Way

 

The Republicans have been “over the target” for three years, led by President Donald Trump, and that’s a great outcome. Their efforts have been hit and miss (such as not getting a healthcare bill and immigration bills passed). But it’s been clear for a while that the Democrats’ hysterical and irrational behavior is an indicator that the swamp is being drained, bit by bit.

For many of us, watching this slow, chaotic process unfold is unnerving. So much can happen while policies, traditions, and plans are being disassembled. Yet this slow-motion unfolding, when studied carefully, is encouraging for the future.

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The future affects our understanding of the past. We live our lives toward the future, but we understand our lives only in retrospect. Only looking back can we see whether we took the right road, whether a certain decision was justified, whether our dreams were intimations or illusions. Life involves risk, which is why we […]

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I previously commented on my three possible likely scenarios for Iowa and my primary (and preferred) scenario turned out to be true. Cruz won, Trump came in second and Rubio came in Third. I did not expect Rubio to do as well in Iowa as he did and it seems I was not alone in […]

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