Birth, Reproduction, Productivity… Then What? Think You Know?
Day 8
It could be said that we get better all the time. But I think a better way to say it is that our capability is growing. This is due to a combination of many things: our brains capacity to process more, the massive amount of information to work with, the improvements we are making in our world and so on.
Our development is not longer limited to the old birth, reproduce and die cycle; it is even more than the relatively new birth, reproduce, productivity and die cycle. Now there is a huge post productive stage that must be considered.
That is what “retirement” was supposed to be. You know the old adage that people generally die within four or five years of retirement. But it is not uncommon now for people to have two or even three consecutive careers.
My point is that there is a lot of living to do… what shall we do with it?
My answer is that we were made to help the next generations.
But this is not just a biological generation to generation thing, as if we only care for those who share our DNA. We, of course, feel loyalty and duty to our own biological families.
But, we are all one Michael Jackson kind of family… you know… it smacks of that syrupy “we are all in this together…let’s love each other” mentality. Or to put it like I learned in Sunday School “Red, and yellow, black and white…we are precious in His sight…Jesus loves the children of the world.” Regardless of how is sounds, it is, what my wife calls, a truism.
I tweeted a boast about my grand children recent and got a reply from a childless grandmother age friend. She reminded me about how blessed I was recalling how I use to long for grandkids. Truth is we are all so blessed, I think a better word is “gifted” to have the opportunity to impart every good thing we have into the hearts and minds of young people, both in the current generations and future generations. It is an incredible gift, a gift like no previous generation enjoyed and it is a gift that carries a heavy responsibility. That saying, “your life is not your own” ring truer now than ever before.
Let’s talk about some of the ways that we can begin to impact generations now and in the future so that they can use the best resources to deal with the massive and complex situations they will face. This is the task of every adult person in every stage of life, reproductive, productive, and impartation. What else are you going to do? Watch TV?
Here is your spiritual exercise for today. Which non DNA related children in your life do you feel responsible for. What are three ways that you can enrich their lives? How can you impact them so that it will positively affect them all their lives and even spill over into the following generations?
I love you – Bryan Martin
