Mediation Toward the Future
Uncertain about what to write this morning. The coffee shop was jammed at 7AM. Fortunately I claimed the last open table.
Yesterday I took a hour long walk along the Fox river into town. Soon, the singing of the wind through the tall oaks, the voices of the Canada Geese on the water replaced the mechanical whine of the traffic. The path moved further from the road, angling toward the arc of the river. The gentle sound of natural activity is more soothing to me than is the austere sound emanating from the artifice of steel and fire, the automobile. Is not the automobile the icon of our American civilization?
I walked and thought. I considered the collection of questions, the issues voiced by the Wednesday nights Socrates Cafe discussion group. Each of the suggestions to investigate the nature of individual experience, and of our life in society, was voiced, inflected with norms. Each inquiry was an invitation to explore further the possibilities that lie waiting.
What does the future hold? I do not know.
I am heartened by children. My grandchildren especially are a source of hope. Can they be raised and educated with kindness? Can they find approval for the imagination which each bears as an incomparable gift for their future time? I’ll do my best. And so will all other members of our family.
