Blog draft mar 16 26

Once There Was a Day

The past is past until it isn’t. How true that statement is. On the surface it doesn’t make sense but scratch lower and it does.

When I was a lad, the world seemed huge and complicated. Where did our street go? Where did it begin and end? Surely these things could be answered? But we had no way of knowing the answers unless an adult was willing to tell us, better yet show us.

What’s on the other side of the mountain? A drive will make that apparent. So too, will comparing today’s question with experience from the past. We can and do bring such forward to help us understand the present. In doing that we also understand the past a bit better. Doing leads to knowing if we do it right. Idly maneuvering through life skips the lessons, however. We do that, not always, but we slip by important lessons to be learned often.

I have lived in many states and climate zones. I understand each one fairly well because of my experiences in the others. That is the past informing us of the present. And vice versa.

If I say I’ll do something to you if you don’t do as I say, the other party will not believe me if I don’t follow through. They will continue to do as they wish. Similarly, if I send a rock over the fence, that neighbor is likely to return the rock in the same fashion. Or call the police. This is what we call tit for tat.

Whether it is a neighbor next door or a nation 8000 miles away makes no difference. The same principle applies. And when the missile we send scares neighbors of the intended nation, they will react as well. How and when is up to them. If we have excellent relations with them, they may ignore our missiles and send their own to our intended victim to add to the destruction. And power gleaned. This is not tit for tat but something much more complicated.

I wonder if we understand this situation from experiences from the past. What did we learn from them? Might we demur further destruction to find peace? Agreement? Common sense? Might there be intelligent people on staff who know these things and should be given freedom to use their intelligence?

Maybe not. In the current White House administration no one knows the decision making process. Intelligence seems not to matter.

Then again this will one of those days in the past one day. What lessons will they offer?

March 16, 2026

 

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