Obligatory, 10.28.15; Some random thoughts

Let's start off with the observation that for me personally, things seem to be going downhill.  Yesterday, the truck had to go into the shop.  It does have a lot of miles on it, and it does seem cheaper to keep it, but that's true only until the thing breaks.  A coil went out on one of the cylinders.  It has eight cylinders, so if a coil went out on all eight, it would cost a lot of money to fix them all.  I'm just going to fix one.  Hopefully, they don't go all out at once someday.

It's not only the truck, but my health too.  Heck, I'm getting old.  Seems like a struggle every day just to keep myself physically up to doing another day's work.  But I have to work, because I'm not rich.

But that kind of thing is probably not interesting reading.  But what is?  I just spent an hour and a half scanning the news.  Perhaps it has always been like this.  It just seems like things are falling apart.  But if you mention this, it seems that people just don't want to face up to it.  They want to hear that things are getting better or going to get better.  But what if it doesn't?

It isn't guaranteed that there will always be relative prosperity in the world.  Much of the history of the human race has had it the other way around.  What we have had for the last century of so in the US is fragile.  It could be lost at any time.  It is like life itself.  One moment, it is here; the next, it is gone.

It isn't guaranteed that there will always be peace in the world, either.  We've had seven decades since the last world war.  Could there be another big one?  If there is a big one, it will be the worst yet.

Nobody likes to think about these things, though.  It doesn't make interesting reading.  There's plenty of "good news" out there.  Let's focus in on the good news, and forget about this bad stuff.  But the bad stuff doesn't go away just because you ignore it.

I've noted how false things seem to be these days.  It seems to me that the truth is necessary if you are going to solve problems.  If you don't understand what the problem even is, how can you possibly have any hope in solving it?  Understanding the problem requires the truth in order to get at what it even is. There has to be a respect for the truth, because with the truth, you have the hope that you can deal with the problems as they occur.   But that doesn't seem to be happening today.  Tell the truth, and you can be in trouble.  Tell the truth about something, and people turn away.

Staying with the truth requires guts.  You will be punished for it, make no mistake.  It is long been known too.  A couple of my favorite proverbs

1. A Mexican one says only fools and children tell the truth.
2. An Arab one says that he that tells the truth must always have one foot in the stirrup.

Fear, intimidation, and falseness all seem to go hand in hand.  It is easy to say to have respect for the truth, but the world says differently.  It is hard to go against the world.