The Short and the Long of It

Given the rapid change in the past century or two, it's hard to take the long view of anything.  In my father's lifetime he shifted from sailing ships to steam ships powered by coal to steam ships powered by oil.  He saw the invention of the airplane and rode on noisy airplanes during World War II.  He may even have learned to fly.  Earning money as a boy guidng eight horse and sixteen horse threshing teams, he saw the rise of relatively inexpensive farm tractors, bulldozers, and rototillers.

In my lifetime we left a depression, moved from a 42 party phone line to private lines and later to cell phones and smart phones.  As a boy I could get radio reception (AM only) part of the time, and sometimes I had to put my hand on the radio to assist the antenna to draw in the signals.  Today we take satellite radio for granted as well as HDTV.

Trade unions were essential to prevent the country from civil war in the years just before I was born, and then trade unions became as monopolistic as the greedy corporations they served to correct.  I heard today of a union complaint to a manager who didn't respond to an email of an employee in a timely fashion, although the employee himself seldom answered his email.

As I wonder about it, how does one "think long" in such a fast changing lifetime?

So far I think this way:

Long range values matter.  Honesty, trustworthiness, a good work ethic, respecting others, sharing, and practicing the so-called Golden Rule have counted throughout all the changes in my father's life and in mine.  Cheating employees and cheating employers are still nasty, and being either of them is worth avoiding.  Looking past the color of skin, the sexual orientation of another are the economic status of anyone to see the actual person brings positive dividends.  [Side note:  a sexual predator, whether poor or rich, dirty or clean, is still scum worth scrubbing off the surface of the tub we all bathe in -- earth.]
Any other kind of predator as well, actually.

The Long View involves positive values.  The short view is merely about adapting to surface changes.

What can we do to help the young, the middle aged and even the elderly take the long view?

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.