Maybe We Just Thought the World Would Change To Fit Our Needs

The above title is a line from a song called The Class of ’57 by The Statler Brothers.  The song itself is not really representative of what I want to convey here but it does speak of how some people seem to be feeling when you consider that so many are angry about a world that hasn’t given them what they want in life. The actual Class of ’57, as told in the song, though, did not get in a twist about it.   They just went on with their lives, and the song tells what became of many of them. This is not the case for a great many people now. Too many people are willing to kill and cause a great deal of grief to others as a result of their not finding a world that will adapt to their personal desires. This is childish and selfish behavior by individuals who somehow have the notion that they have some special entitlement to be supported by the world in their thinking.  If we all felt this way human kind would be much higher on the endangered species list.  And we definitely are on the list.  It is being proven to us at a break-neck speed right now that we are.

I cannot tell you here that this is going to change and we will live in peace and happiness soon.  We won’t.  What has happened to our world is what we can expect to continue.  No government, no police force and no religion has the power to change it.  I am seeing that governments have realized that they have no power to turn the tide of men who are making the decision that others should die for disagreeing with their philosophy. It doesn’t help that we see our own governments display similar attitudes. There have been calls for the people to take to the streets and fight or join military reserves to help because law enforcement has learned in the hardest way possible that they cannot manage in the face of men who are willing to kill and die for a perceived snub to their entitlement.  To anyone reading this blog who has been touched by the recent violence in St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Dallas, and Nice, France, know that my thoughts and prayers are with you, and a day never goes by that I don’t work in the spiritual realms seeking an answer to what we might say or do in life to make a difference in what we are experiencing.

Humans are not a collective like the Borg in Star Trek. Many of us may have similar feelings about life, the universe, and everything but the feelings belong first and foremost to the individual.  It is being proven to us every day that these feelings do not mesh well with the point of view in other cultures.  On the face of it, it would seem that immigration should work under any circumstances but this is truly not the case now.  Honestly it never really has been.  America is proof of that when you consider that we are a nation of immigrants and the fighting here has never stopped, even when we went to other countries and kidnapped thousands of people, supposedly because we wanted them here.  Set aside their purpose for this mass crime for a moment and just consider that we wanted them to be here.  We have never treated them well in an overall sense.  The native people who were already here when white people showed up were treated horribly and eventually exiled to the reservations.  This is how too many people feel about those who are different. I realize that this seems cruel and defeatist but if we are going to change our world we will have to take a hard look at what got us to this point in the first place.  It isn’t only the fault of the host country that the immigrants are coming to.  The immigrants themselves leave their homes supposedly to create a different and better life, but far too many of them arrive in the new country and immediately become angry about their former ways of life and cultures being lost to them in a new environment. Supposedly this is what they were seeking, but if I were to show up at my neighbor’s house asking to become a part of their family I would not get much support for an attitude of expecting the new environment to change to suit what I am used to.  This is only one of our problems.  A problem that we have here in America is a fear of a rapidly changing world that we no longer feel we have control of coupled with a long standing assumption that anyone other than a white male is lesser and inferior.  The reasons that this mentality exists are numerous but in the end it doesn’t matter what the reasons are.  As thinking, reasoning adults we all know better than to behave this way, but we believe that we are entitled to whatever we want whenever we want it thanks to the internet and an advertising media that sells us this delusion every minute of the day. Many people believe that America is the best place on the planet to come to for a fresh start and a better way of life but I can tell you that many people who are already here, right here in Memphis, are so deeply in poverty and hopelessness that they cannot even hope to have electricity in their homes because it is not affordable. The grass is not always greener.

The universe supplied us at birth with the tools to navigate this life in the way that we were destined to do.  We are not all destined for glory and a comfortable life but we always have at our disposal a way to live in the best way possible for our own individual needs if we are capable of looking for it without anger and contempt.  What is ours inherently may not always fit a standard that has been sold to us as being the best but it is always going to be what is right for us.  The lessons are not built in to our brains but they are available to us if we are in touch with our selves enough to listen.  Nothing prevents us from finding our answers as adults if we do not get in the way of it by having too much ego.  The road is never truly easy but if we are not distracted by selfishness it can go much smoother.  At the bottom of all violence is an inflated ego that throws a tantrum whenever it does not get its way.

There is really nothing that we can do about a culture that refuses to live and let live except do that very thing ourselves.  We cannot participate in the tantrums being displayed by the weakest of us.  You may not readily see a way to keep yourself out of the line of fire when these people show up in random places with murder on their minds, but a sincere request of the universe can and does help you chart the right course so that you may be safe from harm.  The help isn’t always given to us in a way that is readily understandable but if we are true to ourselves we are more than capable of managing what we receive.  Times are extremely tough and confusing now so understand that the way out this may be tough and confusing at times, too, but a firm belief that we are entitled to help and we will only be given what is the absolute best for us is all that we can truly count on now.  There is no political solution.  There is no group solution.  There is only you and your personal solution that was put in place for you a long time ago.  You may have forgotten it, but a trip back to the past and to the source of all that lives can bring you back from the confusion.  We will hope that others will make the same journey and bring back hope to a dying civilization.  There is simply no other alternative.