The calm before the storm
Hat tip to
Gerard for this link.
From
The Doctor Is In:
Surveying the Abyss
Those who know me best have little doubt: I am irrepressibly optimistic. Not naive, mind you � at least from my perspective � but whether by personality, disposition, or faith, I am wont to believe the best about people, and circumstances, and the future. I drive my wife nuts, she being of a decidedly more pessimistic bent.
But I must confess of late to a recurring sense of foreboding, about a great many things. Now, prognosticating about the future is a fool�s game, to be sure; a review of most any futurist�s predictions invariable shows a predictive rate substantially less than could be had by tossing a coin.
But I do have eyes, and ears, and over half a century of something one less circumspect might call �wisdom� � and a sense of the spiritual sharpened mostly by ignoring its promptings, with the invariable consequences. Wisdom, as they say, is gained by experience � and experience is gained by lack of wisdom.
In a world which incessantly rips its cultural chords at rock-concert levels, it is no small feat to listen to the still, small voice � and harder yet to distinguish it from the countless seductive whispers and wishes of life long lived in self-gratification and indulgence. Yet that voice ever quiet is nevertheless persistent � and it seems to be speaking with an urgency and clarity which is hard to dispel.
We are standing, I sense, at the edge of an abyss � and the earth beneath our feet is shifting and unstable.
What follows is one of the most beautiful and scary pieces of writing I have read in a long long time. Go and read the whole thing -- it will be sticking with you for weeks to come...
Posted by DaveH at October 14, 2008 8:57 AM