A Question For You...

Ask twenty of your closest friends if they believe in UFOs, luck, or God, and you are likely to get twenty-one different answers.
 
Yet, if you ask them what’s wrong with this world, you will likely get 3 or 4 specific answers.  And their answers will probably depend upon their respective experiences with other people, personnel management, organizational culture, or a member of the opposite political affiliation.
 
As chaotic as the world around us may seem in these times of governmental change, in reality, there is a very real order to what happens in this world.
 
The sun rises.  The moon glows. 

And Saturn (still) has its beautifully strung rings circumnavigating its glorious, gaseous domain.
 
Indeed, regardless of what the media, our friends and frenemies say about this, that, and the other, the only real Capital-T Truth that each of us has is that small slice of reality that circumnavigates our own egalitarian sense of self…
 
No matter what anyone tells you, him, her, or me… we will always believe what we choose to believe.  Or, as I like to say, “never underestimate the power of denial.”
 
Yet, if we are in strong disagreement, can both of us be in denial?
 
Shouldn’t (at least) ONE of us be correct in our assumptions?
 
…in our judgments?
 
…in our profane use of the magical powers each of us possesses?
 
Consider the order among the perceived chaos and disorder:
 
The brilliant sun will blaze its life-giving rays across tomorrow’s endless sky. 
 
The overlapping waves of the oceans will surely kiss the serpentine shores of this sweet land of liberty.
 
And tomorrow, you will again choose how you embrace, engage, and interpret the world.
 
Perhaps we would all do better if we could somehow, someway, admonish ourselves in the way and words of Mr. Omar Bradley when he said, "Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship."
 
Because… though we remain landlocked, land docked, and perhaps timelessly locked into a perceived battle with others of the same ancestral ilk, the time will surely come when we will lose our shoes and all that goes into them. 
 
Soon we will come to understand the very essence of what life is – a spiritual journey bound up, in, and around the celestial universe of which we all know truly exists; but, alas, we do our absolute best to pretend that what is… really isn’t.
 
Never underestimate the power of denial… especially when that denial is ours, individually and collectively.
 
In closing, I shall reference another great quote Mr. Bradley was fond of saying: “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”
 
That is certainly an interesting quote.  If nothing else, it’s an “explosive” conversation starter.  Accordingly, I wonder how much truth there is to it… and to whom the statement was directed.

Who is the proverbial, collective “we” in Mr. Bradley’s statement?
 
I presume him to mean “the leaders of the world.”
 
But, then again, to which world is he referring?
 
...the civilians, the military, or the civilian leaders of the military?
 
...the priest, the pope, or the lay?
 
...the East; the West…?
 
In between war and peace, killing and living, there are billions of conversations, and an equal number of leaders espousing this, that, and the other.
 
And despite the warlike political cacophony that dominates our social media streams, there are far more peaceful agreements among you, me, and every other leader in this world.
 
Between birth and death, we all speak the same esoteric language.  We all understand the basic human needs of every other person who speaks the universal dialect of food, clothing and shelter; birth, birthright and belonging; self, soul and synergy; seeking, seeing and surrendering…
 
But this language… these dialects… all too often, it seems, they confound and confuse.
 
Rather than create and construct, ours is a species that invests enormous energies into dividing, classifying, racking, stacking, and backtracking on what we have learned in our common-but-massively diverse quest to become better at who we are and what we do.
 
At some point, I hope you realize that there is really only one thing that we all need in order to speak up and reach that next level of conversation…
 
There is really only one thing that we all need in order to step up and reach that next level of understanding…
 
There is really only one thing that we all need in order to give up and reach that next level of sacrifice…
 
There is really only one thing that we all need in order to ultimately show up in a manner that reflects the alignment of all of our reSOURCEs.
 
What is that ONE thing?
 
I have my idea…
 
Tell me:
 
What’s yours?
 
~
© 2017 John H. Clark III.  All rights reserved.
~
 
John Clark III is the author of several books and is also an engaging public speaker who delivers a unique and refreshing point of view to life's seemingly overwhelming situations.  Through books, blogs, and everyday conversation, John's message resonates with an empowering blend of ideals that enrich, uplift, and “authorize” people to set and achieve goals far beyond current mindsets.  His trademarked phrase is a winner:
 
Accept. Adapt. Achieve! ®
 
www.johnclarkiii.com