2000-08-23 - 08:12 MDT

August 23, 2000

Crystal Ball

Looking back over my short life I try to count up all the science fiction miracles happening during my time. So many wonders, scientific, medical happened, the art (?) of killing more people with less material (Hiroshima), recently -- men in space walking on the moon, sulfa drugs, antibiotics, new surgical tools, the immunzation against many diseases for instance the insurance by immunization that our children won't have Infantile Paralysis, new means of scanning the body making the old x-rays just an adjunct of seeing through things, the Lithotriptor which breaks up stones in the body, the refinement of radiation treatment, when my Dad had his cataract surgery the routine then was the removal of the clouded lens -- the process of healing -- then the fitting of strong glasses. When I had mine recently, the clouded lens was removed and a plastic one inserted, process of healing much shorter. The vast improvements in automotive and gasoline engine engineering and the Safety Belts. Safety Belts are why I am sitting at my keyboard typing instead of being a paraplegic or dead.

There are more and probably more important things that I have not mentioned.

My wonder is what marvels will come now ? How can the next century top the accomplishments of the last ? On one hand it seems that all the goodies were invented, developed and improved and there is nothing left to make our world better.

Will the magic events be the science of cleaning up the messes we humans have made since the Industrial Revolution ? Will someone come up with a method to turn pollutants back into something like their original state ? Or maybe figure out how to reforest the now clearcut and unproductive land ? Will great leaps be made in allowing us to understand ourselves as well as others. Will some heavenly genius propose a plan which will be accepted by all which will eliminate the so very ancient Hatfield and McCoy mindset that has been with us since the first man envied another man's spear, or wife, or pile of hides, or the bigotry prevailing since about the time that Oral Memorized History began to recount the inhumanity of Man to other men who are different. We see this in other forms of life, I remember seeing chickens pecking on a chicken who was different, maybe had sores or missing feathers or was crippled in some way or another. The "Crips" existed in a starvation mode, being crowded away from the food by those more spry and strong.

It is time I think that the realization that every person on this planet is different in some way or another be accepted. We are each unique and precious. And it is time to peacefully accept this as the normal way of existence. It is I think also time to live in peace with people who have different lifestyles, customs, and way of looking at things. As long as no one does harm to another, will it ever be that we can accept, love, and be friends with others who are different in some way ?

Common sense prevails in most aspects of modern life (Yeah, right), well, sometimes and some things. Maybe some mental wonder will come up with a way to persuade people to stop casting stones at one another (As they do in Israel today) today the word is not sin but goes by many high falutin', high powered, politically correct, euphemistic terms. but as the MAN said, "He who is without sin may cast the first stone. Maybe not the exact words but the same meaning.

I once heard it said that if all was peace we would die of boredom -- what did my Dad tell me ? "If you are bored it just means that you are too lazy to amuse yourself." With peace all around maybe we can make logarithmic strides in world improvement.

I won't hold my breath, but hopefully, gaze into the crystal ball instead of the boob tube.

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