moving forward

  Morals, ethics, responsibility, tradition and culture. These are the things passed generation to generation, one generation at a time. It isn't until the disappearance of the previous that it becomes evident to the present. And that is one of the ironies of life. I guess you could say it follows the old adage, you don't know what you have until it's gone. The saddest part being it is so difficult to get back. But it is possible to retrieve that once again, to return to what was. But you have to act quickly before the opportunity is lost. A generation disappears in an instant, and almost always unnoticed. 

  Yesterday was a reminder of just that. It is the generation of my parents that is disappearing. Now my generation are becoming the old ones. We are stepping into those shoes and beginning to walk that mile. It's the beginning of understanding. There is a series of commercials on television extolling us to not become our parents. They are humorous, and the reason for that is that they are true. Mostly they are jabs at our lack of "cyber" skills and electronic tech. Yes, it's pretty humorous alright, we actually interact with other living people. We don't order ahead using an app on our phone. My generation still thinks of a phone as a device to talk with others on, not a multi-purpose media center with GPS tracking systems. 

  But I began thinking about morals, ethics, responsibility, tradition and culture. That does go forward one generation at a time. What we allow generation to generation is often a subtle thing. Some "victories" will be celebrated as groundbreaking, and a big step forward, only to be exposed later on as a mistake. Take the landmark case of Roe V Wade as one example. In 1973 that ruling was celebrated as a victory for women. Today that equates to over 2500 abortions every day in America. A victory for women? The right to murder their own children. That case is under review today. A moral issue for certain. Ethics? Ethics are being litigated and legislated every day. It's an entire industry all of its' own. In years past we concerned ourselves with those attorneys we labeled "ambulance chasers." Today those attorneys advertise their services on television and billboards across the nation. Morgan & Morgan is just one firm specializing in "justice by compensation." That is the message today, justice is compensation. Then once justice is obtained you can contact JG Wentworth because its' your money! Ethical? Responsibility has been shifted to someone or something. We are just victims of consequence. We are not responsible for anything that happens today, it is the result of what happened in the past, whether it was yesterday, or two hundred years ago. The only thing we are responsible for is obtaining justice for ourselves! Whatever our wants are, society must accept and enable them. 

 Tradition is the method of transference of culture. Each generation will cling to some traditions and discard others. In my experience the older I grow the more I want to revive the traditions of my youth. Really, I want to emulate the traditions of the generation before my own. I am becoming my parents. I wasn't aware of any of that, but my parents were doing the same. They set out to "change" the world, full of youth and confidence. They set their own moral and ethical standards. At first that was simply done by the music they listened too, the clothes they wore or the hairstyles. They started using their own "slang" their own method of communication. Then they aged, they became responsible, they became old. They adopted a great deal of the moral and ethics of their parents. 

 The irony in all of that is that the oldest generation exerts the least influence. I certainly thought my parents were old and out of it. The had such old-fashioned ideas about things. Yeah, they would say that about their parents as well. I remember all of that well. We all live three generations at a time. Each generation convinced the others are wrong. Each generation locked in a power struggle. The eldest the weakest, the current generation exerting the most influence, the youngest generally in rebellion. And that is the whirlwind of life. 

 I guess what I'm thinking about is being, next. My generation will be the next to go. It's true that on average we are living longer lives than ever before. That has been a continuing trend, although I believe not always so. Remember those biblical characters that lived hundreds of years? Ancestors? They are if one believes. Perhaps in the future we will live four or five generations. Which generation then exerts the most influence? It should be the eldest. That is what the Bible teaches. It isn't what is practiced, however. 

 Tradition has changed. The Asian cultures are noted for revering their elders. Native Americans also revered the elders. Europeans, well not so much. Is that a product of aggression? Europeans were the explorers, the migrants, the adventurers. All of that takes young men. Fighting wars, conquering other territories. The desire to dominate. Culture is what we call that. Today we hear a great deal of lamenting about the "white" culture. White peoples being blamed for almost every wrong committed in the world. The truth is all cultures have done the same, it is just that the white people have done it on a much larger scale. The United States is the home of the white man! Isn't that the perception? Regardless of the truth, the United States was formed by a melting pot of cultures, the persistent image is, white Europeans. The original plan, the ideal, the dream, was to create one nation! E Pluribus Unum. Out of many, one. Therein lies the paradox. First, we have to get everyone to agree, one generation at a time. That won't happen until there is but one moral, ethical, responsible, tradition mutually shared! One culture! Can it happen? Well, I doubt that. Not as long as we are focused on the past and what was. Not as long as we use past mistakes to justify new injustice.