…Today we stand on the precipice of a most divided union. These United States have become the most divisive and unilateral entities our country has ever known. We, collectively as a nation, have certainly exercised our right to autonomy and individualism, and that, to an extreme. No longer does “one” mean the same as it did in the beginning of mankind, no matter your personal beliefs, but the “one” in oneness now seems to shade to different shadows and shades away to shine in a different room…
Today we stand on the precipice of a most divided union. These United States have become the most divisive and unilateral entities our country has ever known. We, collectively as a nation, have certainly exercised our right to autonomy and individualism, and that, to an extreme. No longer does “one” mean the same as it did in the beginning of mankind, no matter your personal beliefs, but the “one” in oneness now seems to shade to different shadows and shades away to shine in a different room.
Where, once, there was a time when this “most perfect union” felt a sense of oneness, the placement is upon the table and the replacement is a fake and false food for a distasteful feast. We the people of the United States of America have eroded. We the people of the United States of America have corrupted our past, present and future. We the people of the United States of America have pawned the blood and flesh of our children for the right to take retirement, enjoy the years and fruits of our labor, buy a motor-home and travel this beautiful and great land in euphoric bliss. All the while, the decadent self-serving plate of happiness has been ladled from a bowl of future despondency and despair for those that are left behind.
It is the candescent question we ought to ask in the basking, glowing embers of our final decisions. Should “We” (meaning those of us old enough to remember the bad years of the decades past, the present horrors of our plight and the placating beauty of the “greatest generation” and the way in which they thought, lived, died and directed), should that “We” in us fail to learn our lesson and worse yet, fail our grandfathers and grandmothers. By the way, the title did not come by happenstance or meaningless babble; a Grandfather and a Grandmother meant the ultimate in superiority of wisdom still living with a slight chance and hope to pass some along to the grandson or granddaughter that could aspire in their time to attain the same level of sanity, wisdom and forethought.
Our own “wisdom” know is to make practical decisions. Yes, we make practical decisions more than any other generation before us. We rely on practicality. Reasoning, sensibilities and good, sound judgment based on facts, statistics and hard cold data.
We have lost our way in heart. It is better that Dad should be placed in a facility that has loving and caring providers. Caregivers to meet their every want, need or wish. Better trained and proficient. People that can give Dad joyous and happy days at end of life. Or, maybe, we just don’t want to do it ourselves?
When a nation becomes one known by the way it treats its elderly, its future is decided.
We, this nation of One, have become this nation of none. For instance, “I want none of what your selling, I want none of what your telling, I want none of what is yelling, I want none of caring and none of your problems, even if they happen to be partly mine.” The selfness in this society, and this nation, taken us on a path and course that is destined to destruction. Again, we stand on the precipice, on the very razor edge of decisions. Can we stop all the world from spinning for a moment, sit by the side of someone more than 70 years of age and open our ears for an hour? Can we listen to the songs of birds, the patters of lovers in youth and the dreams of a near century past? Can we open our minds to the mindset of a generation, two generations before us? Can we listen once? Just once?
Can we take a minute in our time to invest in some rock-pile of experiences that cover a gold mine of guidance? Just maybe, instead of putting Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandpa, in Happy Valley, we should bring them into our home as they welcomed us uninvited and listen to the lessons learned from just being present. Afterall, when Mom or Dad sat beside us as babes, they didn’t carry a conversation with us, they carried a conversation within themselves and they learned something: a child, an innocent, a invalid was speaking loud and clear directly to the heart and mind willing to hear life is not just about “me.”
Yes, to the greater degree I am a populist and that for one main reason: I believe that within me, myself and I, there is some hope that I can dig deep and find the you, the him, her and why? A hope to find in being one thoughtful person, maybe I CAN make a difference before “we” take that next step on the precipice upon which we stand. As so oft said, “United we stand, Divided we fall.”
by Lonnie D. Story, who is the author of “The Meeting of Anni Adams
