Should America's Future Be More like Its Past?

Today, I find myself on a layover near Hartford, Connecticut with time for thoughts on my hands. I just have to ask, when did the world forget itself? I've been wondering that all day.

Being here has created a feeling of awe in me. I am in a little town that isn't anything special, but somehow just being in this part of our country feels different. The trees are older, and amazingly still here. There are gas stations and hotels and the random shops, but past all that, I can look around and still feel the earth for what it is. I can imagine all the people that have walked and worked this land for so many years and once appreciated it. It's so refreshing.

I walked around in the rain for a while and found some shelter under a grove of trees and just watched the rain and listened to the leaves. After the rain stopped, I listened to all the birds come to life again and the clouds start to let a peak of blue back in. And all of this was in the back of a parking lot. Then I saw white mist start to rise from the black pavement and it was the most amazing thing. It was like you could see the wind, not just feel it. It arose but a few inches off the ground and then the wispy air skated across the surface, like it had a purpose, a destination, and you could actually follow it's path. I stood on the edge of that parking lot, just watching and listening and trying to remember. Not for myself, for I clearly have no memories to remember of this place until today, but to remember for all those that can and should, but don't.

And so I wonder, when did this happen? When did we forget where we came from and why we're here? When did we forget about life, both in nature and human? How can the people of today be so very different from the people of not so long ago? And yet the people of the past, 100 years and prior, all resemble themselves so much more so than their arguably weak counterparts of now. Life may be better, but I don't believe the people are. Is that a fair trade off? Movies have been being made for years that depict our future in a variety of ways, but I think that it is always a somewhat cold future. Not just the machines and harsh architecture and clothes, but the people. They may seem like the future - the unfamiliar styles and ideas - but it's now. As a people, we already are that future, that unfamiliar existence.

Of course, it's easier to ignore the problems of "the world" and focus on ourselves. Be the change that you want to see in the world. Then again, how often do you see someone walking somewhere without being on the phone or listening to music? How often do you see people walking period!? Perhaps we are even too afraid to be alone with our own thoughts. If so, how can anyone change if they are unable and unwilling to identify the problem? We are a culture of instant gratifying, multi-tasking, complacent citizens who appear to be afraid of the silence. Is this what our great-grandparents would have wanted to work so hard for?

I know that there are things to be proud of that have come about through positive progression. Tolerance in many capacity's, equal opportunities, less corruption in local governments. But it all comes at a price that everyone seems willing to pay. Things like selflessness, work ethic, kindness, generosity, appreciation, family, commitment, these things are now the currency with which we barter.

I want to be different. I don't want to forget, and I want a future that is more like the past. Like the past of the great people who created with no intention of today's reality. I want to be like the people who were thinkers, learners, doers. There has to be a way to merge the best of both worlds. How do we get there?