Coming to terms

I'm coming to terms, today. With failure. And tragedy.

In my case, it's a bigger picture failure and tragedy. Not mine, personally, necessarily. Although there's plenty of that to face, as well. Just coming to terms with the limits of my efforts.

If there is one overriding concern in my life it is helping people understand just how much people are capable of in their lives. Just how capable humanity is, if we were decide to fulfill that potential.

Most people can have great lives, is the truth. Lives they love. Lives with lots of love and deep fulfillment, and plenty of everything they might need or want.

There are people whose destinies are more genuinely limited by circumstances beyond their control. Iranians or North Koreans who cannot escape the prisons that are their respective countries. People who suffer any multitude of tragedies - AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, cancer - that they have limited ability to halt. People who have life experiences that they cannot predict or control - murder or murder of a family member, accidental death or disease, and losses of every conceivable source - that they are unable, for various reasons to prevent.

There are people who experience tragedy that they cannot do anything about.

But most of us don't.

Most of us have circumstances that can be changed, knowledge that can be discovered, and relationships that can be improved.

Most misery in the world, truth be told, is foolish drama borne of people all too limited in their understanding, of the world and of themselves, and all too prone to aggression and control and any number of all too human, mistaken, foolish reactions to their circumstances that often have unintendended consequences. More often than not, sometimes.

I am one of those people. Too many times to count, in fact. I will be tomorrow, too. And the day after that. And the day after that, as well. All of us are. All of us will be. From here until our funny, tragic little species ends its run on this earth.

Most of our conflicts have reasonable and honest resolutions. If we decide to resolve them, that is. Most of our problems have reasonable and honest solutions. If we decide to seek them out.

Our problem, humanity's problem, generally, is that, far too often, we decide we are too frustrated and impatient, too angry and disillusioned, too self-involved, frankly, to seek such resolutions. That they are unworthy of our effort or commitment or whatever excuse we have today for why we just choose not to do anything real about our concerns and instead opt for momentary feelings of self-satisfaction over real and honest resolution of important concerns over time.

Our most foolish problems, frankly, as far as I'm concerned, are the the ones that involve conflicts between one another that can only be resolved with more understanding, of the people as much as of the problems, that we instead choose to engage in any variation of aggression, manipulation, or attempts to dominate and control of one another so accustomed we are to our more aggressive and less thoughtful natures.

I've come to terms with the fact that there are any number of people in the world that could be more genuinely happy, have their needs more honestly met, even have many of their wants more satisfied while having their deepest needs fulfilled, if only they would learn to treat themselves and one another better and learn more about the world and one another than fight and overpower one another.

But, in the meantime, there is much pointless tragedy. And failure.

We can and likely will get this turned around, at some point. It will take much time. Much failure. Much useless tragedy. Just as it always has. Enough failure eventually creates opportunity for learning, if we will take up that opportunity.

Who knows. We shall see.

In the meantime. Much avoidable failure and tragedy. My own as much as anyone else's.

And so our story goes. Human history. A story of failure and tragedy that finally yields, for some, to learning and progress. And the freedom to translate that learning into real progress.

But, for now. Failure and tragedy. My own included.

Same as it ever was.

Let's hope it leads somewhere more hopeful.

In the meantime, enjoy some Ingrid.