When things are down, people tend to pray a lot more… all sorts of promises are made in hope to make things better.
When things look better, sometimes, self-righteousness sets in and without realizing it, we are less careful with mistakes..
After the WW1, society was seen to be frugal, conservative and perhaps kinder to each other. I would expect that there were a lot more people ‘talking to God’ during the war years and Depression. When things began to pick up after the WW2, (in theory: God decided it was time to answer a few prayers) leaderships began to gain confidence in their decision making capacity, which soon became corporate cultures, or doctrines for some. Countries developed, survived businesses revived, celebrations heightened, the moods picked up as the people got richer. The new generations grow up to lead while the war generations tired. Many things and meanings to life evolved into fun, instead of frugality. People prayed less and thanksgiving were scarce when things smoothly flowed.
Now we see a lot more negativity around us because the new world is so much more sophisticated that the young tend to be careless about life. Never had there been such wide abuse of drugs, violence and casualties in life. And never was these issues so widely accepted as MERE glitches when societal problems regarding them arises. The whole attitude and outlook towards the art of living has laxed. What has happened to humankind?
A man after being jailed for 3 decades when finally released, have small chance of psychological survival. He couldn’t even be a successful criminal because he was kept out of date from the evolving world for so long. He no longer had the capacity to keep up with the sophisticated society, let alone round up a self-gaining plot. If he is a new man, he can perhaps do right with this motto, ‘quiet discipline and humility’. There isn’t many other ways to go about it. When you are at rock bottom with all your dignity gone, these few things would be useful to have – determination to pick yourself up, modesty, honesty, moderation and time.
I have been somewhere, but know not if it was my rock bottom. And I have been somewhere, which I know is not the tops. Whenever I reach a desired level, it is always good to reflect and remind myself, the good (difficult) promises made to myself and God. There is no one else around who can remind me of my pacts besides me, myself and I (and God). Wouldn’t it be better to do accordingly rather than to have God to remind you?
I find that sometimes when I forget my daily motto – Quiet Discipline and Humility – something would happen in a way to remind me of my many pacts. Those are great forms of reminder but sometimes the price may be something I do not want to afford!
There are things to learn from the new world and things to learn from the old. Therefore, the old saying ‘Listen to your elders’ still stand true.
Sometimes we don’t know what’s worst, to be a ruthlessly unkind person or to be the bullied one?