Foundation: A Brave New World

All over the world, old systems are imploding or exploding relative to where one views them from. The global economy continues to take a beating, or so economists and politicians would have us believe. War is waged on civilians, and the spectre of 'one side being right all the time' is slowly being dispelled. Those attached to these elder systems are clutching at straws, or perhaps more aptly, like a drunk to the bar at closing time.

There's a 44th President of the United States that bridges instead of divides, and around the world there seems to be a consensus of, "We want one". Well, except those who don't want change - those who liked the direction in which things are going. They say that water finds it's level, and that rule does seem to apply to sewage as well.

And, strangely enough, I'm happy about all of this. It isn't that I like to see people losing their homes, or losing their pensions, or losing anything of value. Far from it; many hard working people who have fallen under the yokes of oppressive systems are taking a hard beating as the system falls down around them. Like indentured laborers, they toiled daily for pittances that barely sustained them while others played with the economic bubbles above the boundaries of morality to profit from them. The center did not hold, but that wasn't really the center. The center always holds. The place where we believe the system is centered does not hold unless it is truly the center.

All around, dust and ashes. From death there is rebirth. For something to be created, something has to be destroyed. It doesn't have to be violent - in fact, it shouldn't be violent - but sometimes the system becomes turbulent and even violent when the order of things falls too far from reality. It's time to get back to reality. To be pragmatic. To be rational. To build. To create. To inhale the dust and ashes and breathe out the Phoenix. And that requires a foundation. A foundation of a strong work ethic, of living within one's means, of mitigating risk and choosing the right risks to take. Part intelligence, part wisdom, mostly intuition.

The world has changed. And I can't help but be a little happy about it. A little happy because this is the sort of environment where I am at my best, thriving on what others call chaos but what is really a new order to be understood, studied and acted upon. And it's a new order that, should we decide to, we can affect.

A foundation. As solid or weak as we make it for ourselves and those around us.