The Insignificance of Us

The loud burst of thunder came from the sky above our normally tranquil spot on the earth, and my eyes opened wide. It was like a wake-up call from an ancient Greek God tossing a bolt of lightning toward us from the heavens above.

I had not heard Cheif Meteorologist—as he likes to refer to himself—Ben Jones, say anything about thunderstorms on the previous news from Macon. Yet, here it was at 5:00 a.m.
Soon, it began to turn into distance rumblings, sounding much like bowling balls slamming against the pins in a the huge expanse of an active bowling alley, one right after another. Boom, boom, boom until I could no longer refer to myself as having a chance of being numbered amongst the slumbering.
My mind however, did begin to start functioning. I thought, as I lay in bed by the sleeping Sheila, how insignificant we the people are in a world in which we have such an insignificant amount of control over the big picture of our lives. Oh sure, we like to say we control our own destiny, and perhaps in a tiny way we do control it. For instance, we can either get up in the mornings and go to our jobs and perform the tasks that are required of us in order for us to make a living by the sweat of our brow, or in some cases by our fingers on the keyboards of our computers, or not. If not, we will certainly not be able to control our destiny. We will, if we are fortunate enough, fall into the category of living off the dole of others who are assigned to take care of the so-called less fortunate.
Sometimes, I imagine myself going to the mountaintop to converse with the wise old man with the long, white beard to ask the age-old question, “What is the meaning of life?” But, if I should do that, I may not want to hear the answer.
We find ourselves voting for and electing to offices from the small municipalities to the folks who operate the House of Congress and the Presidency of the nation, and I fear we do so based on personality, just like we did in school when we elected our friends to the class offices. Everyone got together and decided to vote for Betty Sue or James Bob because we perceived them to be the cutest, smartest or most personable.
But, I ask you, is that enough? Should we elect someone because he or she reads a teleprompter almost like a memorized script—words flowing from his/her mouth like water from an artesian well? When a word “change,” for instance takes on a role of importance without significance is enough to sway a majority of voters, we may be in deep trouble before we learn what kind of change was being referred to. Nay! Nay! I say we must become better educated or be ready to face the consequences that surely will follow.