Everything Isn’t Easier
Sometimes it seems like things are easier and faster than they used to be. For example, dinner can be cooked in just a few short minutes. Email and texting has largely replaced “snail mail” and it’s possible to buy almost anything online. It’s much easier to use a computer to type rather than using a typewriter, and the remote on television sets allows the viewer to sit and control streaming, gaming and station changing without even leaving the couch.
In addition, there have been truly miraculous advancements in medicine and technology. Cures for many diseases have been developed, and travel is faster and easier than ever. It is possible to even get blood test results on personal medical logs almost immediately after they are read.
But not everything is easier. Children are required to participate in social media that creates peer pressure and bullying. Obesity is on the rise for many children and divorce - which was once almost unheard of - is now a significant source of anxiety. The COVID pandemic has also been the most significant health crisis in a hundred years.
Even getting a job can be harder. I remember when I needed work. I’d go to the state employment agency in town and apply for employment. I’d fill out an application with job experiences and references included. The employment counselor would look the application over and come up with several positions that were open in the area. I’d then go to interviews often the same day and sometimes be hired on the spot. Nowadays most things are done on the computer with resumes and there’s no initial opportunities to meet potential employers face to face, and it can take weeks or even months to actually get work. It’s difficult to project enthusiasm and dedication from a resume. It makes the whole process impersonal and it’s difficult to make a good first impression.
Another thing that is not faster or easier has to do with doctors. It can take months to get an appointment for even serious health concerns. It took months before I could get a hip replacement even though I could barely walk, and when I had a serious skin cancer, I was told it was important to get it taken care of as quickly as possible. Again, I had to wait months for an appointment. If it was indeed so serious, why such a long wait? (However the ER situation is about the same, I think as it has always been. Long waits and misdiagnosis have probably always been true.)
Then there is the problem of getting a college education. The cost keeps going up so students are becoming only concerned about getting a job. In my view, college should be more than just a way to make a living; it’s also about how to live one’s life. Clearly, getting work and learning about life are both important.
Other things that, I believe are harder to deal with are dangerous drugs and gangs that didn’t really exist when I was growing up. In addition, physical exercise is now not necessarily a given either. When I went to school it was not unusual to walk over a mile and we basically walked or biked everywhere. Now that is not as common. In fact, sometimes there are no sidewalks for people to use to get to their destinations.
So, although it seems obvious that life is easier now than it has ever been, it probably isn’t completely accurate. Individuals in society as a whole are often described as anxious, restless and unfulfilled. Life offers so many choices that it’s often difficult to stay with one thing before going on to something new. Change especially seems to create uncertainty as well as opportunity.
Perhaps because I’m a senior now; I look at things with a prejudiced eye. Since my wife, Donna and I, don’t have children, I don’t understand the situation for raising children as a whole. Nevertheless, to believe that things are easier nowadays with all the things that are available, I’m not certain society is actually as content or even happier than it has been in the past.
I’d like to finish this newsletter today with my poem called “Uncertainty,” that is taken from my book of inspirational poems called Poems of Faith, Hope and Love. It describes the human condition, I think, as it relates to changes in our society. Shout out to my niece Jen and my wife Donna for helping set up this weekly newsletter. Today marks one full year since starting this endeavor. See you next week!
“Uncertainty”
Life can often be uncertain, and fame and beauty never last.
Happiness can be complacent while grief can be a solemn test.
Hard work can sometimes disappoint no matter how I persevere.
I trust in all my do’s and don’ts mostly based on doubt and fear.
One day things seem really great, but then depression steals my joy.
My thoughts can rise above the fray, but then I lose all sense of hope.
Desires fueled by expectations always make me race ahead.
Then I sink into frustration when some problem comes instead.
So many times, I push myself and struggle with my stubborn mind.
Yet often I am somewhere else and fail to show up for my life.
But sometimes what I need is silence and forget about the worst and best.
Then I stop and wait with patience and simply let God do the rest.
(Please remember these are my own ideas, and I’m not attempting to persuade anyone to change theirs.)
Quotes:
“In these times I don’t, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don’t know what I know and want what I don’t know.” Marsilio Ficino
“It is not uncertain that everything is uncertain.” Blaise Pascal
“If I cease searching, then woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it - keep going come what may.” Vincent Van Gogh
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