Going back a hundred thousand years, of course, isn’t possible… at least, for now. Of course, with scientific and high tech innovations, who knows what might be possible, down the road a bit?
Wouldn’t it be interesting, if we could discover what our predecessors on Earth, the Neanderthals, the Cro-Magnons, and maybe others, were thinking about things?
Maybe they didn’t see eye to eye on everything. Maybe they weren’t ‘advanced’ enough, those many years ago, to be divided by beliefs. Maybe that was a blessing… not getting so worked up, so much, that the world could merrily keep going around, rather than spinning out of control at times… like now?
The point being: lots of time, energy, and such, maybe is being squandered on things — beliefs, and all — without us earthlings knowing, for sure, what the beliefs are actually all about.
Case in point… all the time, various officials in various governments, are spending taxpayers’ money, debating things, holding hearings, and, to put it bluntly, screwing around with things, in their many efforts to impose their beliefs on folks — folks who are simply choosing to be themselves — beliefs about love, and marriage, and religion, and so forth…
…rather than simply showing tolerance for the ways of others, which is the very definition of ‘live and let live.’
There’s an annual Farmers Market, this time of year, out our way on the left coast, and one of the merchants had cookies with frosting, depicting the pride flag. My wife and I were thinking that was rather brave of the merchant, considering all the controversy surrounding pride lately.
How sad, we were thinking, that someone might feel threatened, because of a design on some cookies.
All around us, folks were different from one another… in their ethnicity, their attire, the languages they were speaking, and their choice of cuisines they were enjoying.
There’s that expression, about what makes the world going around… and another expression… that it’s a small world…
Maybe smaller than some of the elected officials, and many others might believe.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.