Ripples

All across the snow, intricate patterns laid out by the winter winds

Mere ripples on the surface, laid down as almost an after thought

Yet giving texture and beauty to the landscape

Though destined to melt, nothing is lost


Inspired by the comment on previous post and a long trek through the snow

Don't Think So Much

The young man gets his education
He understands the way things work
He acts according to this understanding
Putting rocks in the stream so it will obey his wishes
But the stream is bigger than that,
The water will flow on to its own design, as it always has

Quote for the Day

Events are fluid. The future is like smoke from a burning forest, waiting for the wind of specific events and personal courage to blow the sparks and embers of reality this way or that.

From The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

Rome

People like to look back at Rome and marvel at it. It was a civilization and a vast empire. It had extraordinary technology for its time, organization that is still hard to imagine-building and managing a vast empire, and impressive engineering that is admired to this day-think aqueducts and the Coliseum. On the downside, slavery was instrumental to its economy, it vetted out force with cruelty, had a culture that was riveted by the barbarism of gladiators and developed in such a way that a republican government was replaced by emperors.

Two thousand years from now, what will people living see about our current civilization. They will no doubt marvel at the impressive growth of technology over the last couple hundred years, the organization that had to be in place to win WWII and put men into space, and engineering to construct some pretty incredible things. But what else will they see? How much of our economy is based on greed, insecurity, and coveting thy neighbor’s social standing? How often do we resort to force to settle problems? What unhealthy things fascinate and amuse our culture?

I usually keep things here introverted and a bit self centered but I was watching Ben-Hur and it made me think.