It is here outside of ourselves that we begin to know that the spokesperson inside us is real and the words that we utter will take up residence in our collective voice which will resonate in our consciousness as well as when we close our eyes and dream.
It is there in that moment that faith which sustains us and the hope that carries us forward on the precipice of a New Year and the promise it holds will afford us the energy that will bring all of us through this tumultuous period we are currently experiencing. A period that has seen the meshing of financial and technological advancement colliding and decimating the future of individuals who were under the impression that production jobs would last throughout their lifetimes. Havoc has been wreaked upon our ability to communicate in print.
Skill sets once belonging to cashiers and travel agents are compromised and have given way to demand and consumption, as those functions are assumed by robotic machines and humanity and personal exchange are sacrificed by point of sale transactions.
The computer is not only the translator of information, it has become the transformer of dreams that individuals expressed, and the data is analyzed and negates the need for financial analysts who were once the only purveyors of the price of commodities, goods and services. Day traders and electronic consumption of services, book purchases, music downloads and all of that with the corporate or manufacturer’s guarantee that no humans required, to make the transaction real. Instead our faith in telecommunications, technology and our dependence on computerized systems have abdicated human involvement to the lowest and the least common denominator.
It is here that we must grow our faith to understand that these developments in transformation motivates and dictates that our skill sets must increase exponentially. Ph.Ds will earn the same income and be valued the same as a bachelor’s degree. A master’s degree is becoming the marketplace equivalent of an associate degree.
This is the reality we face. An engineering degree will be desirable and tenaciously sought after. A psychology degree will no longer occupy the admired status it once did, and those without degrees will live in a state much like that of an agricultural work animal, lost to a lifetime of manual labor. It will become apparent that prisons will be reflective of holding places in a society where individuals with undeveloped skills sets, arrested emotional maturity and an unwillingness or inability to take responsibility for their lives are corralled into a camp thanks to technology, and they will become numbers in a maze of the prison industrial complex. This will be their only value to the new society.
Do not abdicate your faith in ociety, but understand that this technology with all of its moving parts will foster great change. But with a deeper understanding of who you are, and sustained commitment to your mental emotional and academic development, it is possible to expand your personal base to something comparable to the vastness of the Amazon. But if you find that you are not building your sense of integrity, or if you are not increasing your chances for prosperity, or you leave the role of personal development to some entity other than yourself and your Higher Power, you should also anticipate that your dreams will not be realized since you’ve handed them over to someone or something else to mold. Moreover, you will live a nightmarish existence until you regain control of your destiny.
Living requires that you believe in the things unseen to move on. I happened to participate in a religious experience where I witnessed a son and a father, both devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but the songs in their hearts and their unshakable faith propelled them forward to something greater than mundanely succumbing to that tragedy.
We all have to believe in that which is greater than us; the individual, the family and education. Make history and leave your mark on society. But your faith in working toward the realization of a goal that is larger than your life is required now. Move forward in the understanding of exactly who you are. Do not lay down the mantle or the mandate to be bigger than you are, and recognize that if your are not growing you are dying.
The only way to cruise in this life is to take the ride downhill. So put faith first in your mind and soul and create a life that helps those around you to understand that being a beacon of light is what we are all meant to be. Be the fortress for others to find sanctuary in from the deeds that you do. Don’t let your life become a steppingstone for someone else to make their fortune off you. Don’t give up your life and your hope.
Peace. –Munson Steed
