I don't care who you are, your comfort is only temporary; then you're gone. Did you make the world a better place? According to who? According to your grieving spouse? Your children? Your neighbor? According to history not yet written? According to your God? Or is your God only interested in your comfort? And what about your neighbor's God? What if his God is the one true God and your God is a sham? Belief, Faith, even confidence requires uncertainty. Right?

And comfort, satisfaction, even happiness requires ignorance.

Uncertainty and ignorance, in both the individual and the species, are necessary for functional progress and survival. Uncertainty propels and ignorance paves the way. Too much uncertainty, the going is rocky and slow. Too much ignorance, we build walls and a roof spreading up and back and we do not pave roads forward; into the unknown. And to stay here or back there when all around us is moving forward is to be left behind; to die.

We must adapt.

Battling the impact of an advanced species, depleted of some resources, the planet changes; working to survive. If we don't adapt along with the planet, we are left behind.

Humanity also changes; working to survive. The doctrine, the policies, the principles, the way for 8 billion people today must evolve and advance from the way for 3 billion people a mere older generation ago. If we don't adapt along with the species, we are left behind.

As individuals, as families, as communities, as nations, we must adapt.

A thought, a word, an action in this moment, is already outdated. I must rethink, rephrase, redo; now; and again…

I understand, there are some, perhaps many, maybe most in whom a little uncertainty creates a disproportionate amount of discomfort. And I believe this more extreme spike is the cause of more extreme reaction in thought, word and deed; a desperate grasping for a misremembered comfort that is no longer possible as illusion or reality; a reaction that encourages building walls and a roof spreading up and back, and discourages paving roads forward into the unknown.

For the sake of the species, we must find a way to bring comfort to this reactive constituency, and then we must find leadership in whom uncertainty and ignorance are proportionally efficient and productive. We must find leadership to bring comfort, then pave the way. In this moment, in this country, our leadership is extreme and desperate. In a few weeks we may have an infusion of some proportional productivity, but because there will remain considerable reactive divisiveness, comfort will be sporadic and the road will remain rocky; and the possibility for long term survival will continue to teeter.

I believe our elected leadership should be responsible for comfort and underlying layers of experts, advisers and thinkers should be responsible for planning the way forward and guiding the elected leadership toward efficient and productive decisions and policy. I believe expertise, vision, humility, eloquence and persuasiveness is a combination of characteristics rarely found in a single individual. I believe eloquence and/or persuasiveness will continue to be the yardstick for politicians, which in turn (I believe) dictates a degree of exaggerated ego; and this pretentious politician should not be allowed to operate heavy equipment. I believe we must discount persuasiveness in favor of (even some small amount of) vision and humility. I believe this combination is the politician more likely to bring comfort and allow more qualified others to operate the machinery that will pave roads forward; into the unknown.

I don't care who you are, your comfort is only temporary; then you're gone. Did you make the world a better place? According to who? According to your grieving spouse? Your children? Your neighbor? According to history not yet written? According to your God? Or is your God only interested in your comfort? And what about your neighbor's God? What if his God is the one true God and your God is a sham? Belief, Faith, even confidence requires uncertainty. Right?

And comfort, satisfaction, even happiness requires ignorance.