SEEKING OR SETTLING; CLIFFS OR COUCHES?

Right now streets and websites are crowded with angry people and even angrier ideas. But anger is a secondary emotion. It comes from somewhere else. In this case, from a collective sub-conscious fear that the world is volcanically shifting under our feet. That we're in danger of losing both our footing and our way.

Quick, pan the camera from the chaos in actions out there, to the choices at work inside here. No matter the different times or country or issues, inevitably we all bump into the same life-choice: Either to seek or to settle.

SEEKING (the cliffs of our life)

Over the centuries, the times often sweep us along to the heady heights of exhilarating cliffs. Exhilarating worlds of imagination and possibility that exceed our own humdrum lives. Many factors come into play. Especially the magic and imagination of our restless youth. We may find ourselves caught up in the imaginary good&evil worlds in "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Harry Potter," to the good&evil worlds of political rhetoric,

In some ways we're hard-wired to seek out the new and the daunting. Lately for some it means the comradeship of fellow protesters and conspiracy aficionados. Not entirely unlike the Medieval Crusaders, Napoleon's recruits or Hitler's Storm Troopers, today's zealots surge with the pride and the passion of a cause. Bold causes always seem more important than daily routines.

Beneath history's causes and crusades is that inexact exhilaration that comes simply from being there! Predictably, though, there's usually the morning-after crash. The let-down when the causes and crusades appear to fail. When the rage and the ranks seem to break.

However, something's very different today. Neither the Pope nor Napoleon nor Hitler had the 24/7 billows of the Internet to keep fanning their flames. And re-baptizing their faithful. As usual -- time and fate will have the final report on all this...

SETTLING (the couches of our life)

Time even more than fate determines history. And so yesterday's rebels and warriors are often today's bankers and board of education members. Not regression, not retreat; simply settling. Settling into where their time-tested experience has now brought them. A plateau, as it were, from which they can see the past by a clearer light. And can strike a deal with the future by an easier conscience,

True, soft couches are less exhilarating than heady cliffs. And yet, these are very much the same couches you remember Mom and Dad settling into while rummaging through their editions of the Tribune. They had done their work, fought their battles, raised their kids. They felt entitled to take some time away from the ramparts, and simply read about them from home.

Sounds like a reasonable generational synergy. At least so it seems from this particular couch...