For those who have hope, looking forward is a natural mode of behavior. For those with dashed hopes, looking backward to some mythological golden age is likewise natural. For those with absolutely no hope the perils of falling into apathetic depression or violent madness that desires to burn things down are again natural outcomes.
Here in the United States of America and many other places, choosing one of those three paths at the crossroads of 2020 was something that couldn't be avoided. Sadly, the last one has been chosen by enough to create a 2021 that may make the previous year look fantastically good by comparison. Anything that can go wrong is with no light in the tunnel in sight.
One of the worst things is how acceptance of corruption and violence has grown, not shrunk in response to the challenges of a pandemic. Complicating the civil unrest is the now open resentment of the very existence of working class people of all races, creeds, and religions by the upper classes and a good chunk of the wealthier middle class. Divide et impera -- divide and conquer has been very successfully employed on an ignorant and self absorbed populace.
While the world is apparently bent on living a new normal of mandated isolation, corrupt tyranny, and hatred it is hard for people to be hopeful. Despair is growing, along with addictions and suicides, as jobs, income, and socializing are lost. Not exactly conducive conditions for growing hope in one's heart, are they?
My perspective on all of this going to be unusual. Personal circumstances of age, health, wealth, and lack of family have given me no hope for better times in the mortal sphere for some years. Frankly, generations of people are looking at the same fate, or soon will be when they realize far too late what all has been happening. Dealing with loss of what I'll call mortal hope is much more difficult when caught off guard with the ensuing problem of simply not having enough time to prepare for it.
Even so, I do not prescribe mortal hope. Often based on human expert opinion it is all too fallible and you are bound to always be disappointed. It is due to the bitter fact that the most brilliant human is still a barely functional idiot in the grand scheme of things. The failure of our governing, scientific, cultural, and educational leaders to be as brilliant as they claim to be has resulted in a slow rot of the faith of the masses in any of those institutions.
This loss of faith has been happening for some decades although many do not realize it, especially the members of those institutions blaming the ignorance and stupidity of the masses. The real problem is that those lesser beings called the masses have begun noticing their betters have adorned themselves in The Emperor's New Clothes. Conflict is inevitable when madness reigns.
Not a cheerful thing to contemplate, is it?
It's a good thing that I consider myself just a visitor passing through on my way to a better world or I'd be trapped into one of the destructive modes of thinking outlined in the first paragraph. This, of course, doesn't make things blissfully easy as the world intrudes no matter how isolated or divorced from it you are. That said, letting go of worrying about the outcome for the entire planet or even the country I live in has been a good lesson in humility.
Most of my life has been spent worrying on the behalf of others accompanied by inability to actually affect things on even a small stage as years of involvement in politics proved. Perhaps disability played a part, since so little of my own existence is under my control and so I looked for distraction in the form of civic duty, however it is no excuse for frittering away hours, perhaps years of my life. An ant trying to shove an elephant around never can succeed, after all.
Rather than despairing, it is liberating to let go of responsibility that was never really mine in the first place. Taking on the burdens of the world is the Lord's duty, not mine, as I've thoroughly learned the last few years.
Where does that leave me in these broken times?
My path has to be spiritual for the most part given my limitations. Choosing to do so while letting go of more worldly things is a way of putting one foot in front of another even if a slow shuffle. The important thing is actively keeping moving which should be easier having let go of the unnecessary weights slowing me down.
It is ironic that this post was not started with any spiritual message intended yet keeps coming back to my faith in Christ. Is that itself a small step forward? Time will tell.
In the meantime, working on my health, learning video encoding (and eventually editing), and reading all those books I've accumulated over decades will keep me busy. The world is on its own.