TO FILL A LITTLE SPACE

Most people are eager to get somewhere. But their own actions often betray their intentions, for they become guardians of the status quo. Others make no careful plans to move ahead and, as a result, also go nowhere. And one also finds those who take a bold step to move forward but soon retreat, the moment any obstacle presents itself in their path.

Living life to the fullest requires risks, constant risks. Years ago I was reminded of the obvious: even a turtle will not move forward unless it sticks the head out. But fear, shyness and other related factors, keep many humans from making necessary progress.

On the other hand, a large segment of the human species is so stuck in the rat race that many forget that one is to soar like eagles. No matter how far anyone has come in life, there remain new heights to climb, new goals to reach, new experiences to enjoy! No accomplishment, as significant as it may ever be, should be concluded with a period, thus denoting that it is the end. Each achievement, instead, should be followed by a comma to indicate there is more to come; the time of new pursuits, new discoveries, new inventions, new theories which can benefit the human race, is far from over, and one needs to live with that understanding in view.

Surely, humans have the inbuilt drive toward progress, and no today is of any significance unless it is a mere step in moving toward tomorrow, while maintaining continuity. Obviously, many things in life are fixed and should not be altered. But there is much that is also experimental and, therefore, can be changed, improved, or even discarded.

Not to be forgotten, however, is that all human steps toward tomorrow need not mean a total cut from yesterday. A major, old problem, especially in the field of philosophy, is the tendency of discarding tradition. In fact, it is often obvious how modern philosophy maintains “a concerted rejection of tradition,� as a contemporary writer has put it.

All major advances, be they in personal, human experience, or through new developments of science and technology, as well as in any other field of endeavour, necessitate the steps previously taken in those enterprises, in order to move beyond! What is old is not necessarily bad, just as what is new is not necessarily superior. Arthur Koestler, with a keen sense of humour, referred to those who are prone to reject the past as “men born without umbilical cords.�

While not rejecting the past just because it is old, it’s imperative that the things of yesterday will never become distractions in one’s daily effort to move ahead toward a new tomorrow. What is new at any age may be renewed continually so as to make a positive difference to new times in the calendar into which one advances. Only what turns sour or rotten, even sinful, needs to go. And St. Paul, the apostle, personalized that beautifully when he wrote: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (II Corinthians 5:17). That reality is still open to anyone!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 11:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.