A Drop in the Pond

I've been thinking a lot about the future lately. Not the near future so much as the far future. In human terms of course it's only a drop in the pond. It's not defined in eons like the universe and the earth may be defined but instead is defined only in years.

If we have the privilege to live our lives out, to get old, to remember and then not to remember; what is the culmination of it all? The question brought me back to my family trip to Hawaii.

One of the survivors of Pearl Harbor was visiting the memorial since it was the day before the anniversary. He and his loved one were honoring the memories of those that were lost. To him, the names weren't just words on a wall. They were people. With full and colorful lives and personalities.

Looking at them in the picture as she points at the wall, I realize these people were survivors. Not in the physical sense, of course, but they survived on in the memories that were carried on.

A September 11th survivor was once quoted as saying that the life changing event made him realize that it was important to create memories for others and not himself.

The future and the past aren't so different. Both are a drop in the pond.

One hangs there with potential to create great change, to do great things, to fulfill wondrous dreams; or to change nothing, to be ordinary, to do nothing but create a splash for the moment and then be enfolded into largess.

The other, shows patterns. Some have great ripples that continue on even today. Some, caught up in another's pattern, become nullified.

And then, I remember one of my favorite books of all time. The Precious Present by Spencer Johnson. And it reminds me to just enjoy riding the ripple or wave I'm in the midst of making. No matter how big or small. Because after all, in the end, it's all a drop in the pond.