The Art Of The Past Can Instruct, The Art Of The Present Seems To Only Confuse

Here’s the secret they want to keep from you: life makes sense. Life has meaning, and that meaning is knowable. What was true yesterday is mostly true today, although the lies are constantly changing. Every day, some newly embraced belief is alleged to represent the newest and only truth, and each day the previous flash in the pan is discarded on the heap reserved for ideas with no depth or weight.

The truth is they want to keep you confused. They want you to believe that the great truths are beyond your ability to grasp, and that you need leaders whose genius is so great you cannot begin to understand them. So that they can tell you right is left and you will believe them.

This past weekend my wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary by visiting Milwaukee. We’ve had other important anniversaries, but some obligation or other always seemed to come up. So this time I was determined not to feel guilty for taking four days for ourselves and leaving the rest of the world behind.

We saw the tents of homeless people pitched beneath the overpasses, even as we see homeless people waiting for food and shelter at a church in our small town. As it is said, the poor are always with us, but I tried not to dwell on it. Surely all of us are permitted the occasional moments…