On Aging and Personal Impact

I'm in a strange season of my life. One deeply spiritual, highly motivated, and now well-experienced, though acutely aware of my vulnerability and personal limitations. Maybe for the first time ever realizing that I'm aging!

My life has always seemed unfairly favored, deeply graced with experiences in multiple sectors, thus an empathy and understanding of the "why" behind what compels the fine folk in each sector.

We mean well, but dang the mess we seem to be facing as a country.

My words sound a little arrogant as I write this morning, but processing my thoughts is what keeps me sane and positive, as I struggle with said empathy.

Educators have my heart at this time, as the public school system absorbs so much of the daily trauma among families who have few alternatives given the growing wealth gap.

Political maneuvering to better the system, driven by the global pressure for a more skilled worker force, one that must also be digitally competent, seems of late only to stifle necessary resources.

Private charters and independent schools are now diluting peer leadership, all complicating the health of one of the most critical institutions in our society.

I take some blame having participated in all of the above in my first 30 years.

Early on, the Institutional Church was best positioned to assure a sound education for all, though her motives were skewed more towards disciplemaking than academics, frighted away by the Enlightenment perhaps, her best institutions now quite distant from their spiritual moorings.

Some believers of late, seem to be picking up responsibility for this institutional error by way of nonprofits, now arms length from the theological struggles that have negated the intent behind the church's initial goals.

I'll reference the "Old Deluder Satan Act", a 1647 Massachusetts law that established the foundation for public education in America by requiring towns with at least 50 families to hire a teacher to instruct children to read and write. It also required towns with over 100 families to establish a grammar school to prepare students for university.

In the last few decades, new independent schools have been launched by a diverse array of churches, yet in many cases those schools merely provided another source of income, as church campuses attempted to capture revenue through otherwise underutilized facilities.

Some have survived the curve and now provide a balanced academic opportunity as well as sound spiritual grounding. I take pride in my continued engagement with one of those success stories.

Back to politics and community leadership, my heart seems always called to such. Painful at times to watch those who enter that arena, add value to their local communities, yet soon lured into state and federal governance, their stripes soon blurred, while data indicates their own purse and that of their supporters is fattened.

Meanwhile, competitive capitalism and market demand thankfully bring reality to the mix, as long as the masses bring some moral compass to the voting booth.

However, given a rapidly accelerating wealth gap, a soaring national debt, global competion whose markets are now controlled by anarchies with nuclear capacities, let alone the impact that AI will have, "singularity" (look it up) seems to be approaching.

Who knows where this is going.

Much will be dependent upon the first two critical institutions addressed, education and the church. Wealth can't buy morality. As well, once greed and scarcity divide the populace, bitter rivalry only complicates any attempts toward true nationalism.

I guess experience, empathy and aging comes with a cost and a responsibility hard to deliver upon.

Again, it's an interesting time.