WORTHY WORDS TO BE SHARED

There are way too many worthless and wrong words floating all around the air waves today.  Time was people would read the news and ponder it for awhile and except for some who took the time to write an op-ed piece in response to it, most would keep their response and opinions to themselves or they shared them with their friends over coffee where there could be a dialogue and blending of ideas.

Now people can hear or read something and have a reaction and response posted and read by hundreds if not thousands of people, all in five or ten minutes.  They take no time to ponder what was said or research the information to enhance it or find the truth.  It’s just formulated and develops into an opinion and it is published, which for many give it creditability, so it is reposted again and again. 

Over time opinions become doctrine and edicts for others to heed and adopt, and if they don’t they quickly become the opposition, the enemy and the wars break out with everyone telling everyone else what they should believe and what they should do.  This only increases the words which increase the chaos and the beat goes on. 

The unintended consequence for all of this is that a culture of like, unlike, comment, or share has been developed with no regard for truth and no responsibility for untruth; a culture living on fast brain food and fast information with no concern for nutrition or well being, just empty words falsely filling our minds like empty calories falsely filling our bellies.

This is not limited to social media but extends to our bookstores and libraries as well, which find their way into schools.  We have books upon books pushing and selling this idea and that idea on how to think and how to act; giving us new ideas so we can get rid of all the old ideas that we have been building on for years.  Foundations and traditions be damned; be “progressive and ascribe to this new and better idea.  Testing and proving be damned; try this, you’ll like it! 

Instant change and instant growth is a magician’s trick; an illusion to the eye and a delusion to the mind.  Good change and growth takes time and seasoning to ripen and mature into substantial fruit.  Thoughts and ideas take reflection and pondering to ripen and mature into a sustainable reality.

A progressive thought process is just that, a process.  That process takes time to look at new ideas and observe results or consequences before being put into action.  The Native Americans looked down the line 7 generations before making hard decisions.  They had that concept down pat before the “progressive action people of sophistication” came and instantly wiped out these “traditional, unsophisticated, ignorant savages”.  This is a pattern that has been going on in other countries as well.  A lot of the difficulties in the Middle East now go back to the same hubris of foreigners coming in and “saving” the poor ignorant inhabitants from themselves.  As Dr. Phil would say, “How is all that working out for you?”

I don’t like labels but if I had to label myself I would say I am a Progressive thinker but a Traditionalist activist.  The old and ancient ways are to be respected and built on, not immediately dismissed and discarded.  The old ways have been thought out and tried.  Yes, they may need some adjustments but they don’t need to be simply eradicated. 

In the circle of life all things matter; the old is incorporated into the new, making it whole and more sustainable.  Our words need to be withheld until they are weighted with reflection and truth.   Then they are worthy to be shared and heard.