Assuming our lives have purpose well beyond eating, sleeping and working, I find myself wondering at this advanced age how I'll evaluate my stay here given there's time to reflect before departing.
Was my spirit briefly confined to this meaty frame so I could spend as much time criticizing, harping, judging and hating as possible? Was I given consciousness to rage over even the most trivial issues?
Bet I'm not alone in observing that, sadly enough, there appear to be many today who subscribe to that approach. We have acquired the unprecedented ability to routinely call each other foul names, criticize virtually everything, and to deceive ourselves into pretending only our rigid views on the role of government in our lives truly matter.
The blaring megaphone of social media is to thank for so much of this contentious way of life in 2019. And there are intrusive forces at work actively fostering hatred between Americans in what I see as a calculated tactic to divide and conquer our once "indivisible" nation.
I'd prefer to think my final minutes would be occupied in recalling how much I cared about others while here. I'd want to give thanks to the creator of this mysterious wonderland for having the opportunity to experience such a place and possess the higher awareness that a divine hand and the capacity to love even exists.
In light of the fact we flawed animals universally seem to realize love is the positive state from which all goodness, compassion, caring and empathy springs, it makes no sense that I should measure the effectiveness of my existence against any lesser yardstick. Certainly not by how much negativity I shared.
Over the course of an average lifetime, we naturally come to feel love for our friends, our romantic interests, our children, our families, the beautiful sights, sounds and fragrances around us, our pets, gardens and--for so many--our faith. Fact is, the term love has become a convenient way of describing all the warm, positive aspects we feel toward virtually anything around us.
While we certainly are fully capable of hate and all its undesirable traits that detract from our lives, it makes no sense in my tiny brain that we would choose to spend our precious limited time investing in such negativity over using every opportunity to choose love.
There's no question the hatred we sometimes feel wells up when we become offended or resistant to another idea, or toward those who cause us harm or pain. Negativity is as much a part of existence as darkness is to light.
Rather, I'm talking about which trait we as individuals will remember as we leave here. Will the hate we dispersed have made this a better world? Did my resentment really add anything worthwhile or enduring to my own experience of fleeting consciousness? How about yours?
Regardless of your religious preference, I've always believed St. Paul specifically noted that, of the gifts we are given, the capacity and ability to give and receive love was the grandest of all. Faith and hope--also positives--were contenders.
Those who know me understand I'm far from a minister or proselytizer. Yet as individual spirits, we are free to choose after arriving here with a clean slate. And with age and experience, I'm capable of absorbing deeper wisdom about existence and what I may have to face about myself when the light fades. That also means recognizing the many times I have fallen short.
Paul went on about the genuine need for love in our dealings with each other and within the world.
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing."
No mention of hate, fear, loathing or spewing negative judgments about others. Instead I see his admonition as a timeless glimpse into a profound truth behind sharing our brief human lives together.
Say, as a novice Bible-quoter, ya think I need an "Amen" here, you know, just for good measure?
Desirable for retirees
After spending seven years of my life as executive editor of the Sentinel-Record newspaper in Hot Springs, I readily understand why Kiplinger's online version of its business magazine would name it among the nation's best communities for an early retirement.
From its paved Promenade above the downtown to the West Mountain hiking trails, area lakes, Oaklawn Park, natural bathhouses and a cost of living 8 percent below the national average, there's much to appreciate.
Of the seven Arkansas communities I've called home, I rank Hot Springs along with Harrison (with its abundant natural beauty, streams and lakes, wonderful people and convenience to so many advantages in nearby Branson) as the two most eminently livable cities for retirees.
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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 07/14/2019