Reflections

Living brings with it milestones. The first day of the new year is one. And milestones bring reflections--a review of events in the interval since the last
one. For some people, the introspective ones, reflections cover a deep pool of events and experiences.
For others, they are scorecards, with each event getting a plus or minus and not much more thought.
Reflections can also be predictions of events to come if they are exploited as they
should be. If we ask "why" that experience happened, did our actions, or inactions
play a role in the happening and its nature? Can we use the experience to guide future events and behaviors? After all, we are the masters of our fates, capable of using the learning process to our future benefit.
Many of the events of the last decade were the results of conscious decisions made by
people in power, who ignored the lessons of the past. Those ommissions of reflection
have placed our nation in serious jeopardy and decline. Can we hope for the instructive power of experience to avert more unreflective actions by our leaders?
We can if each of us uses that power individually and conveys it to our officials.
That old adage "he who ignores the lessons of history is condemned to repeat them"
is ever true.