Few words: Looking out the window

It is not unusual for me to mention that the view from the windows of the place in which I dwell is very important to me. Here, in this house, in a general sense, the view is mundane and boring. People who live in suburbia generally are mundane and boring, and their homes and small lawns and inane activities reflect it. But, that is another story. One element of the view from the windows of this particular location is a predictable stream of aircraft, such as this one, departing from the north and heading south and east. Depending upon cloud cover, these departures usually are visible from the living room windows as I sit before my computers and television. At night, lying on my love seat bed and looking through a window, I often will watch the lights of aircraft arriving on their approach from the south. These sights stir the imagination, if not the spirit, and provide a measure of equilibrium. I wonder about the destination of this aircraft. Perhaps, it is bound for Kashmir.

Who makes tomorrow?

It had not been my intention to write more than the words which accompanied my photograph of the aircraft in flight, but after having looked at a number of photographs of the street demonstrations which have been going on in Romania the past several days and earlier in places like the United States and Greece and Britain, I decided to add a few thoughts.

I feel badly about what is happening in Romania and many other countries. I think most people do not understand that what is happening in the world today is the result of leadership decisions made not today, but yesterday .... last year .... a decade ago.

War is a constant element of mankind, and not all fighting is with rifles in fields. Much of it takes place in corporation board rooms, union halls and government offices. Even in republics such as America, fate is determined in elections by people who usually cast their ballots for the prettiest face, or for the promises of the easiest life and the greatest rewards.

I have said before and, undoubtedly, I will say again, more often than not those who rise to power in political parties generally are the most selfish among us and have the greatest thirst for personal power and wealth. They often are the worst and the morally weakest of us -- not the best. It is foolish for men and women to put blind trust in governments and politicians, yet most do just that time after time.

As for young Americans, most of those truly dedicated to freedom and equality are or have been fighting in the actual death zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Although why any of them do this in the current climate which exists in America is beyond me. The weakest and the laziest and the most foolish of young Americans, I think, are blind followers in what they see as a Utopian socialism movement. In actuality, these "occupy" movements are nothing more than organized attempts to bring down the old and to bring in a new hierarchy of greedy, selfish, wanna-be power brokers.

This is why I am like the Ancient Norseman, who when asked in what he believed, replied, "The strength of my own right arm." The only tomorrow with a measure of certainty is the one which you make for yourself, not one which some stranger promises to make for you. Why so many people fail to understand this absolute and fundamental principle of life is a mystery to me.