Day after endless day, my youngest son sits dealing with this new reality. His mind can’t comprehend that life has essentially changed, there is no normal to get back to. The biological world has released it’s soldiers against human expansion. The modern world calls it utilizing resources, but in reality what’s happening is that the human race has run out of room. Do we yield a part of this planet to its non-human inhabitants, or do we do battle against the ecological world? All my son knows is that his Boy Scout troop meets on-line, his school work comes from a website, and his daily routine is repetitive and boring.
The problem is clear: we must learn, accept, and grow. The outdated idea of the city is showing its shortcomings, a petri dish of infection and disease. When 8 million people live on top of each other in massive sky scrapers, move through the same transit system, and walk on crowded streets, it was only a matter of time that this occurred. Also, we have shown the absolute folly of manufacturing all necessary goods, medicines, technology, and a vast array of other items in the foreign countries we compete with. China has changed massively in the last 20 years, and with that change they can take advantage of the new world we all live in. Unfortunately, the Chinese need the Americans and the Americans need China.
The problem is the solution! I believe every element is here for us to take advantage of this opportunity in disguise. If the problem is that both the Chinese and American governments fail to help individuals while only propping up large corporations, then we must act to preserve ourselves. I tell my son that each day is an opportunity and you need to find out how you can be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. So if food is the problem worldwide, then growing as much as possible seems like a good solution. Free time is only a problem if you waste it - if you use it productively, there is never enough of it.
How do we encourage growth while eliminating waste? The world we live in produces junk, a lot of junk! We waste, consume, and discard without thought of where our garbage goes when it leaves us. There is a worldwide compulsion to use and then junk anything we don’t like or need. Every country in the world has massive garbage dumps where millions of tons are buried every day. Why? It was cheaper so why not? The fact is that it is only cheaper at the start. In the end, the damage caused by toxic waste far exceeds any savings from dumping trash. So waste is waste, right? No! Everything can be considered a resource and, with the right process, everything can be reused, reduced, and recycled. Unfortunately, just like with my son, I can’t make the world change its behavior because I think I have a solution.
For any process, skill, or activity to matter, an individual must believe in what they are doing. Oh sure, I can ask my son to do yard work, clean his room, read a book, or use his time well. The truth is without him wanting to do it for himself, I can’t make it rewarding. Right now, we possess the technology to process much of our home and business waste locally. If only towns, counties, states, and regions understood that the costs go down in the long run when you process your own waste. When waste becomes a resource, then local manufacturing could be a new reality. By utilizing the current technology and equipment, most reprocessed materials could be used to manufacture many of the items needed locally, stopping the need to go to China or India for most goods. This would be good for everyone and much cleaner, too.
I explain to my son that daily exercise is part of being a healthy person. I show him how most Americans are overweight and that causes many life and health problems. People are addicted to their smart devices and game systems nowadays, and it seems that the act of spending a whole day just playing one game is an acceptable use of time. In my gamer heydays, I never played more than a few hours before I wanted to go out and do something. My need for activity always made me a good athlete, but my kids don’t have this instinct. Don’t get me wrong, I love to game and I will spend hours doing it even now, but my days are full of other activities, or I go nuts! How can I convince him or the world that being in motion is healthy and that every day is an opportunity to be active. The benefits quickly show themselves, after a single month of exercising, the result is transformational. But how do I get them to stick with things for a month at a time?
There is no limit for the love I feel for my family, and each day I find that helping them be as happy and productive as possible is a noble and rewarding activity. I wish that the sleeping world could wake up to this. Each day is a chance, an observation, a gift. Every minute, every second, every moment of life can be used to be alive. So the world has changed. Yes, change is scary, but it is a new opportunity never seen before. Take it and make it yours. Without personal involvement and focus, time is just a burden and not a gift. Live love and it will return to you tenfold - but just not how you expect. That’s life!
