Think deeper

Think deeper - beyond the obvious, beyond today.

That's what popped into my head this morning while I was watching television. You know, the election commercials, the news on the economy, all that "stuff" for lack of a better word.

I've never been a true day to day thinker. Some things have happened lately that made me realize just how far ahead I look before making decisions. I don't look at tomorrow or next year - twenty years, thirty, maybe. And I've come to realize that's why I don't stress as much as my other half does over day to day decisions. No, I stress over what people are doing to the world and what effects it's going to have on life for my kids, grandkids and so on. I worry about what we're going to live on in twenty, thirty years. Not just today. And I never count on government or any other entity to bail me out - just me.

Is it a side effect of writing the books I do? I don't know. I wasn't always this way. As a late teen and even in my early 20s everything was so devastating and day to day. Then life smacked me in the face and I had to straighten up or give up. I took the first path but it sure was not easy. It must've been somewhere around 1998 that I heard something along the lines of this:

Ask yourself if what's bothering you is going to matter in five years. If not, don't let it worry you too much and ruin the current day, if so, fix it now.

That's how I judge the decisions I have to make now. Of course there are more dire ones that don't have the luxury of not being worrying - car payments, mortgage - how to fill up the gas tank when you live in an area where you can't just walk to the grocery store or anywhere really. But in the back of my head I know those things won't be what defines me (unless I'm totally irresponsible and leave debt to haunt my family later). So those things don't dominate my life.

Anyway, my point about the think deeper thing is this, I wish everyone would stop worrying about only what's good for today and think about what's good for many tomorrows later. Any decisions that are made by us on who we vote into office and by the one who gets that privilege can't be made with such a short view of things. Not if we want what we have to continue on for our children and their children.

Oh, and you might be surprised after that statement that I believe drilling for oil and natural gas should be done here in the USA. I love nature, we need to take care of it. But we can do what we need and still be kind to nature. Honest. And here's another wild idea - ah - HELLO, we don't run Mother Nature or this planet, we're simply blessed enough to exist on it. Species have been going extinct and terrible things like drastic climate changes have been happening for much longer than recorded history.Sometimes it seems to me, from the things I hear and read, that we've elevated ourselves and our species to some godly level where we control the above. That our ignorance has caused the coming extinction of animals or what not. I don't dispute the fact we've sped things up. But I'm not able to think that without us, these things wouldn't happen.

Just something to keep a mind off the cold today...