Final Years

 I have now entered the beginnings of my eighth decade. Time is relentless in its forward motion. Life is inherently fragile and finite – this is a fundamental reality of existence that impacts not only our rather miniscule existence but our home world, the earth, the sun whose solar furnace gives us sustenance and even the galaxy in which our star together with its planets represents a small part.

I have spent much of my adult life embroiled within the world of politics at some level. At this state of my existence, I find this kind of involvement entirely unproductive. I have grown terribly weary of the apparent inability or unwillingness of a significant portion of humanity to effectively incorporate reason, intellect, understanding, thoughtfulness, kindness, compassion and love into the conduct of their lives. As a result, humans seemed to be locked into a destructive and mindless pattern of ignorance, bigotry, hatred, aggression, violence and retribution that has haunted the entire history of human civilization.

There does not seem to be any reliable and persistent remedy for this uniquely human reality. I no longer have the wherewithal to maintain this involvement with what seems like an insolvable problem. It is for the coming generations to apply their collective energy to the problems we face.

My fundamental goal for my remaining years - as long as the health of body and mind will sustain me - is to keep my essential sanity intact in this human world with its penchant for chaos and upheaval. To do this, I need to persist in my determination to avoid delusional states of being; keep my eyes wide-open; continue to appreciate the inherent beauty of existence, embrace the powerful dimension of love and contribute in whatever way possible to a better world for those who follow me in this dance of the generations.