Abundance
It is the last Friday of the second decade of the 21st century. As I sit on my comfortable couch in the living room of my modest home, looking east toward the snow-capped Catalina Mountains, a range of mountains that provides my view, I ponder what has been this past twelve months and beyond. It is late afternoon, and I am listening to a CD of Russian choral masterworks on a six-year-old Bose stereo system while sipping a single malt American whiskey from a local distillery, a special winter release that, at 110 proof, is a delight to imbibe. My Christmas tree, twinkling with lights and decorations, takes pride of place in my living room. A winter storm has blown through my part of the world, southern Arizona, and as I look out at Pusch Ridge, the specific part of that aforementioned Catalina Mountain range, the continuing clouds dance on and over the peaks often in ghostly fashion through setting sunlight filtered through those vapors. The snowline sits at around 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) and winter rains have blessed our valley while winter snows have adorned the mountains. It is beautiful and this, is abundance, materially, intellectually, and emotionally.
And not just this. So much more. Earlier in the afternoon this Christmas week, I attended a press conference for a client of ours, a press conference we helped arranged. While our little boutique public relations firm has been going through a nearly five-year “drought” with a lack of clients and difficult times, the fall of 2019 brought new clients and returning old clients. So, despite the fact that it was Christmas week, it was good to be busy again, working.
All of this got me thinking: this is the best time, ever, in the history of the planet, to be alive. While 2019 brought too much politics, anger, angst, and just old-fashioned complaining, consider some of the following statistics from 2019:
•Almost 90% of people alive today have electricity, more than at any other time in history and a full 11% of global energy now comes from renewable resources.
•92.3% of the global population has access to safe drinking water.
•Global literacy is now nearly 90%.
•90% of children, globally, now complete primary school education.
•Global life expectancy rose for the 57th year in a row and, on average (combined for men and women) that life expectancy is now 72.4 years. Again, that is a global number.
•Global infant mortality rates dropped for the 29th time in 29 years on record.
•For the 27th year in a row, air pollution deaths declined: fewer people than ever before are dying because of air pollution (yes, I know what you are thinking if you are reading this from Skopje, Tetovo, or Strumica).
If you are an American, those numbers are even better. Unemployment is at its lowest level since 1969. The real poverty rate is just 2.8%. Infant mortality rates have declined by 14% since 2007. Death from cancer has dropped from 168 per 100,000 in 2000 to 146 per 100,000 today. Smoking is at its lowest level since 1965. And the list goes on.
Of course we all go through pain and suffering. Dostoyevsky said “to live is to suffer.” I think back to the first time I encountered real, memorable, pain and suffering. My father was dying of cancer. When he came home from the hospital, for a brief visit, I remember hiding behind him, as he sat in his rocking chair. He was emaciated, skin and bones and I was afraid of him. He was not the muscular former US Air Force fighter pilot I loved and looked up to. He passed on to eternity with God shortly after that home visit but that fear of seeing him in that condition was real then and I remember it to this day. Both of my grandfathers died within six months of my father’s death, both by suicide; I have had more pain and suffering since then and I know I will have more in the future. Fortunately, and counter to Dostoyevsky, there is happiness, contentment, and much to rejoice about in life and I have experienced a great deal of that as well. As the Ghost of Christmas Present told Ebenezer Scrooge, “There are more good things in this life than you can possibly imagine.” Much, of course, depends on your attitude and outlook on life. This does not mean ignoring that pain and suffering and pretending it does not exist but understanding it rightly. And this takes wisdom, and generally, age.
On a national level, as Macedonia and as Macedonians, you are going through a period of pain and suffering right now. Your very name and identity — your patrimony! — has been taken from you — by fellow Macedonians! And with the help of certain Western elites. That is difficult to understand and to deal with. It has many implications, most of which are unknown as I write this. But, remember the truth: this too, shall pass. Your name and identity, on a personal level, a family level, and at the level of the private sector is yours, is strong and robust, and yours to defend. On a national level, a public level, it will be restored. But that is up to you. On a personal level most of you reading this have also had some pain and suffering to contend with this year; but there has also been much to be thankful for.
As the year behind us now concludes, remember that there is much to be grateful for, which is the subject of my Christmas column, next week. For now, a very Happy New Year to you and yours as you reflect on what has been.
