Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
It’s been said that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
The future is always an uncertainty, but it’s especially acute for this year’s graduating classes. Not only did the pomp and ceremony surrounding their milestone accomplishments get nixed by the coronavirus pandemic, but what lies ahead is more of a mystery than a plan.
As of last weekend, New Mexicans started opening their doors just a crack, to gauge the temperature of our collective illness in the hope that we’re over the worst of it. We’re not, but basic human needs are forcing us out anyway.
The graduates of 2020 must look out at their future through cloudy windowpanes, stuck inside while the world goes questionably by.
I can only imagine the pain of physical isolation while in your late teens or early 20s.
As a boomer, I’ll admit that my generation has failed in many ways, but all is not lost. We’ve opened up a world of possibilities by developing some pretty impressive tools.
Technology is literally taking on a mind of its own and science is delving deeper into creation than it ever has before.
And medicine is advancing our ability to live well past 100 years old — if we can survive all the threats that have also come with these advancements.
The future of humanity now lies in the hands of those who will take up the cause of saving ourselves from ourselves. And, yes, it can be done.
Take climate change, the existential issue of our time. As our modern world has slowed down in response to COVID-19, our planet is actually getting cleaner. Cities are reporting cleaner air, wildlife is thriving and the effects of global warming are slowing, because people are staying home and leaving smaller carbon footprints. It gives hope that we can indeed avert environment catastrophe if we set our minds to it.
We’re at a crossroads. We can either emerge from this pandemic and re-create our dirty economy, thereby returning Mother Earth to her death spiral, or we can create a new economy, one that’s cleaner and serves everyone.
This is where young hearts and minds will make all the difference in the world. To them I say, these are your preparation years, when you’ll “train up” for your contribution to society, and when you’ll set your own personal priorities for the years to come.
Some of you will go the materialistic route, and your priority will be all about making money.
Others will seek happiness by following your passions, or by building intimate and beautiful relationships, and that’s where you’ll find life’s blessings.
And some of you will let your idealism get the best of you, and you’ll go tilting at windmills. You’ll speak out for truth and justice, maybe even putting other people’s needs in front of your own, only to be disappointed to find that there’s no Utopia, no matter how hard you might work to make it come true.
To the idealists, I say, as you run that risk of disillusionment, you’ll still be contributing to a better world. It’s no small thing to believe in the greater good — and a higher power.
There are opportunities in this moment. Great opportunities, if you’ve a mind to seize them.
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:
