Making Sense Of The World

I truly enjoy retirement and try to make every day better than the last.  If you look around this website, you’ll find suggestions on how make the most of this wonderful time of life.  I try to follow my own advice and am always looking for new things to learn and new activities to enjoy.  Plus, you never run out of exciting places to go.  But I also have to admit when life throws a curveball at you and making sense of the world is a challenge.  I am the first one to say that we have been very fortunate in life and have escaped major illnesses or financial hardships.  We live a pretty good life.  But, if you watch the news, it can be difficult to go to bed at night and sleep peacefully with what’s going on in this troubled world.  From war and shootings to the hopelessly divided situation we see in our own country, you wonder what is going on.

Sometimes, making sense of the world seems like an impossible task.

Even as a student of history, it’s sometimes difficult to say that “we’ve seen this before” or “things will get better” if we just give them time.  It is some comfort to read about the history of our world and realize that things, indeed, have been worse.  Although we seem to be divided now, there was an actual war that was fought that killed more Americans than any other war because the political differences had become too much to solve.  The wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are difficult to watch but the two World Wars were much worse in terms of casualties and disruption.  Millions of people died, and it seems like we forget what history can teach us.  I believe that history is a great teacher and, if everyone would just study our past and read the words of Abraham Lincoln and take them to heart, I believe there would be some change in people’s behavior.  I believe retirement is a great time for learning because it will allow you to consider new perspectives and realize that, in some ways, we’ve seen similar situations, and we have persevered as a country.  Making sense of the world isn’t easy sometimes but there are ways to do it.

One of the things we need to do is to keep talking to each other.  When we put up walls or fail to listen to one another, there is no hope for resolution.  We need to find common ground, no matter how small that area of agreement is.  Two points in our history come to mind when I think about how a dire situation can be turned into a winning outcome.  The first was the Cuban Missile Crisis.  People don’t realize how close we came to war and the arguments that took place in the White House during those twelve days make you appreciate how careful conversation and a commitment to finding the best solution can transform a crisis into the gradual construction of a peaceful solution.  It was masterful and there have been many excellent documentaries and books that could be used as a textbook for disarming a confrontation.

A second event worth noting was very different.  There was no immediate crisis, just an ongoing history of hostility between two countries: Egypt and Israel.  In this case, Jimmy Carter to a major gamble in trying to bring the leaders of those two countries to the peace table.  The Camp David Accords began with neither party respecting or even speaking to each other, but they took painstakingly slow and small steps to arrive at an agreement.  The message to me was that a consistent and open-minded approach in discussing substantial differences can lead to surprising success.  It’s remarkable to hear what transpired during those meetings.  We had leaders who were committed to peace and willing to hear the hopes and fears of every side.  What transpired and what emerged should be an inspiration for us today.  Our differences can be resolved if we truly want them to be.  Making sense of the world involves looking at every side in a disagreement and talking about it.

For me, talking about a situation is the only way to resolve it.  A very good friend of mine is on the opposite end of the spectrum on just about any question there is but we have been friends for over fifty years.  Between us, we have developed a way to respect each other’s opinion and some of the positions are not that far apart from each other if you keep personalities out of the equation.  He gets frustrated when he hears other people expressing views that he disagrees with and making it seem like he’s the one at fault. Feelings can inflame a situation.  You can’t help the way you feel sometimes but you can realize that feelings are a reaction.  When it comes to serious disagreements it’s best to ignore our first reaction and develop a more logical and reasonable response.  The more we can incorporate learning into our discussions, the more we can see alternative solutions that we may not have thought of before.  History is filled with examples of success, but it also has many wars that were examples of failures.  Making sense of the world is something that people have been trying to do since the beginning of time.  We can study history to learn from it or choose to ignore it.  History can be interesting if you look at it as resource for problem solving.  I never get tired of it.  Maybe a little journey into our history will give you some perspectives for today.  It can be more fun than you think so I hope you give it a try.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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