Understanding the Difficulties of Our Journey Forward

Last evening, as the sun set and disappeared over the horizon, it was hard for me to believe that we have closed yet another year in our life’s journey. That same sun rose again the next morning, welcoming us into an entirely new year, while the journey around that same sun begins for yet another year.

As each year came and went, a very good friend of mine would always say how amazed I would be at how quickly time would fly by. Weeks would pass like a day, a month like only a week and a year like it was just yesterday. 

The year 2021 will go down like so many other years. We said goodbye when relationships ended for one reason or another. Some ended from illness or accidents, while some had just reached the end of their life’s journey. Their impact on us over the years helped to mold who we would become and provided us with the foundations of who we are today.

New life also became a welcomed addition to our own lives. It’s amazing that children are being born to women and men who themselves are the children or even grandchildren of people that we shared our adolescence with. 

Regardless, you can’t help but be touched by the smiles of a newborn or a little gal dancing in her first recital, or feel pride when your son says “I do” to the young lady he takes as his bride. It is all part of life’s journey.

I have been fortunate to have outlived my parents. My only regret is that I never had enough time to spend with either of them while I was an adult. My dad passed at 45 years of age and my mom at 66. The lives they lived were absolutely as different as night and day from mine. Both their parents were from immigrant families, who were also as different as night and day. My mother’s parents were of European descent and my father’s parents were from a Mediterranean culture. At best, this provided an interesting combination, while also creating some of their own interesting challenges.

As a former history teacher, I always found my grandparents’ generation to be one of the most unique in our nation’s history to teach about. They came to the U.S. with what they could carry, into a nation of immigrants who shared many different languages, religions and other cultural values. They were determined that their children would have a better life than them, and worked hard to accomplish that goal, no matter the sacrifices or costs.

My parents’ generation carried on those values, sacrificing more than can be imagined. They lived during the crossroads of modern-day history, which helped ensure future generations could enjoy the freedoms and liberties their parents had longed for only decades before when they immigrated to the promised land of America.

Today, I live a life that my parents could only dream of, due in part to technology that past generations could only imagine.

As the year 2022 begins to rise on the horizon, I think we should all take the time to reflect on our past, to enable future generations to learn from some yesterday’s lessons. Our relationships with each other, and treating one another with respect and dignity would be a great starting point, especially with our neighbors and those we entrust our governing bodies to.

The last several decades have been filled with great challenges for our nation. We continue to struggle with our own identity. A growing segment of our population has shied away from the concept of our leadership position on the world stage, a position which has historically seen America as a champion of democracy and human rights.

Outside our own shores there has been a growing resistance to the concept of America as a self-appointed champion of democracy. Yet, at the same time, we are shown disdain if we don’t engage when rogue regimes threaten a peaceful world order. 

As citizens we must stay engaged in our communities here at home. We must be contributors for the better good of all, rather than just opportunists and consumers of the fruits of others’ labors. We must demand more from our public servants, and look deeper into their motives and beyond their polished words or well-groomed public personas. 

We all have a responsibility to be guardians of the wonderful gifts that generations before us passed on for the benefit of our generation, and future generations to come. We have that same responsibility to look after those in society with special needs. We must also be strong guardians of our planet’s health, in a rationale and reasoned manner. 

As we move into 2022, we must do so in a more unified fashion, concentrating on actions and not just words. We must focus on getting things done, rather than just talking about them; whether it is about health care for our citizens, the condition of the infrastructure of our own communities, or the environment within which we live.

In 2022 we must move forward as Americans and put away the divisions that fracture our great nation; divisions that exist because of the use of cheap political theatrics. Juvenile and unprofessional actions diminish our role as the leader of the free world, a leader that should provide leadership to solve these challenges in the years ahead. The lack of true leadership also fails to provide the electorate of our own nation with the necessary confidence to deal with the challenges that lay before us domestically, and internationally in 2022.

All is not lost, however. As Americans, when we have joined together for the common good, we have persevered and overcome challenges such as these. The call to arms is before us now. Our friends and foes alike should never doubt our resolve to rise to those challenges, as we have in the past and will continue to do in 2022.