What Does the Future Hold for Us?

I was getting dressed for work this morning, and on the window sill in our bedroom is a small frame with stained glass pictures of flowers and butterflies, and written on one side the following words:

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Until then I wasn't sure what to write about this morning, but this short quotation just got me thinking, what does this really mean, and what does the future hold in store for us?

When I was younger, much younger, I had the feeling that I must be here for a reason. It seemed that there were so many "ordinary" people around who never achieved any fame, never succeeded in doing anything spectacular, weren't heroes, inventors, scientists, politicians etc, and I thought "this can't be me, I must be here for a purpose".

As time has gone on, I have seen my career take off, then stagnate, and now in these years of economic gloom I am hanging on to the job that I have and hoping that it will see me through to retirement. I have seen 2 failed marriages, had 3 wonderful children, finally found the woman of my dreams, and am shortly due to get married again. But what of fame and fortune, or having done anything so that my name goes down in the history books?

I am sure that I am not alone in these feelings of wondering if I am here for some great purpose, but I am rather digressing from the subject that I started on, although it is still related to it.

When I was growing up in the post World War Two era, it seemed that things were getting better in the world. Technology was leaping ahead, man was exploring space and landing on the moon, and yet dark forces were still at work, causing chaos, wars, hunger and famine in so many parts of the world.

Now it seems that there are still wars, rarely between feuding countries, but to try and destroy the great evils that are threatening to return our wonderful planet back to the dark ages, with the masses being rules by terror and the threat of dire consequences if they do not submit and follow the harsh rules set out by their leaders.

At the same time as we fear this possible future for the world, public opinion is often against sending armed forces to try to combat it, and in some ways this opinion is right, as armed force alone rarely is enough to fight off evil forces.

The only way as I see it to call a halt to evil, is the same way that has been used in the past, both in history and in countless books. As in the French Revolution, when the starving population of Paris stormed the Bastille and in no uncertain terms told the King "That's Enough!", on numerous occasions in the Middle Ages, such as The Peasants Revolt, or in books like Narnia where the forces of good triumph over those of evil, it's the common people en mass who stand up and rally together, shouting "Enough!".

There have been incidents like this already on a very small scale in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where towns and villages have stood up to the insurgents and denied them shelter and to hide them, and I wonder if in some time soon, there might be enough urgency for the population of these countries to say to the evil forces there that the time has come to stand up and refuse to accept then in their lands.

What I find really sad is that the cause of most wars and conflicts throughout history, is religion. Other than madmen, like Hitler and Napoleon, and political regimes like communism, almost all wars have been due to religious rivalry.

This today is more true than ever, especially in the Middle East, where history has changed it's path, and no longer is it one country that is fighting another, it's bands of inhuman monsters who just want to make the world cower before their regime of terror.

Never before in human history have people killed innocent people for no reason but to instill fear, at least not on such a scale. People turning themselves into human bombs, using innocent women and children as human shields, and all in the name of God too. It's so amazing that they manage to brainwash people into following them and in believing that this is the way of the future. Not even the Catholic and Protestant churches would dream of desecrating each other's places of worship, and yet these monsters do it to their own.

This above all is what amazes me, the power that their teachers have, to make people subservient to them, and to perform such unspeakable horrors, and all in the name of God. Living in today's world in many ways is just like living in your worst nightmare.

I wonder then, where this all will end. Having described the horrors that we see in today's world, let us return and consider what Eleanor Roosevelt said:

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

What beauty is there in killing innocent people and in forcing people to live in fear of their lives for a moment's freedom? None whatsoever! Isn't it time therefore that instead of purely relying on violence to combat violence, which only causes more hurt when innocents are killed by mistake, we ought to do our best to educate people in the beauty that our world has to offer and how wonderful life can be when there is freedom to life your life and to make the most of it.

This brought me back to watching the news a few days ago, which showed a school in Afghanistan where girls were being taught for the first time in years. The joy of the girls, as well as that of their teacher, was wonderful to watch, and yet behind the smiles lay the fears that radicals could so easily destroy their lives and their hopes.

Without big changes in this world, things will never get better, and I fear not so much for myself, as I most likely only have a few years left on this Earth of ours. I fear however for my children, grandchildren, and wonder what the future holds for them. Will times improve, will the forces of evil have their way, or will the environment become hostile as the world climate changes, leading to the breakdown of life as we know it and people living in a post apocalyptic world like you see in the movies?

It's a sad world that we live in isn't it, but who needs to put things right? It's not just up to the governments, it's up to popular opinion, it's up to the masses, it's up to you and me!

Just my two cents worth for a Monday Morning...