Not finishing what I set out to do in life before dying is not my greatest fear, no not having someone to pick up where I left off is.

To be progressive is to have the courage to try to see through the fog of doubt that blocks the path forward, make out what is yet to come, in a journey where others focus their gaze on what is and what was.

To be respected is to obtain mastery of the past, to be feared is to make ones domain of the future. To be both however, is to take command of the crossroads that between both past and future, the present.

The Humble often stand head and shoulders above others because by their very nature they are people who are afraid of heights. Looking only towards the heavens, they attain them, never having glanced down to see how high they have risen from the dark pit of pride.

Throughout human history there is there was an element of untouchability that we applied to our fellow human beings, the belief that certain people were beneath others the fact their mere touch would be polluting. Such a system existed in India through caste, in japan as Burakumin, and often was culturally socially and religiously enforced. While this system was wrong, that is not to say untouchables do not exist. The true untouchable is not born as such, nor made to be. The true untouchable pollutes not with his body but with his mind his surroundings, he who chooses to divide our beautiful humanity, defiles the ideologies of unity to ones of division. The true untouchable is a product of choice, for he who is the one who chooses to hate.

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Never fall into the pit of pride, the day a man becomes proud is the day he has gained a thing he fears losing. Fear of loss is what drives the worst aspects of the human character. In his mind he has gained something, yet his soul has lost.

While I am glad I sit in Canada far removed from the Charlottesville protests, one cannot help but look at whats happening. I can sympathize with the white supremacists to a certain extent. I understand times are changing things, things you have enjoyed are being taken away, it would be terrifying no doubt. The sympathy I extend is the same the same sympathy I extend to a child’s terror when a light in a room suddenly shuts off, where it was on. It is your fear, your lack of education or lack of knowledge that provokes my sympathy, not your cause. Yet I find the protest silly, the ideals of equality, tolerance and diversity scare them so much, that it takes so much away from them. Their anger is misdirected why blame the treatment? Blame the disease of racism that requires such a bitter and harsh treatment, if so much was not given earlier on that was not yours to take, not so much would need be given back now. If the attempting to end racism is so brutal bloody then so to was bloody and brutal the process of its unchecked growth on humanity.

Funny how this picture taken almost 70 years ago, has as much relevance today as it did back then. This picture was taken in London at a time when the in biggest conflict humankind has faced was taking place. Britain along with its Commonwealth stood alone against Nazi Germany. They had endured many bombing raids on their cities and the war at that point for the most had been losing cause for them. Yet Santa still delivers his presents albeit with a helmet. Christmas and the holidays still went on, the compassion and generosity of the holiday season still went on, people’s ways of life still went on. 2016 has been a rough year for many of us, on a personal level and for the world at large with the looming spectre of extremism,Trump, Environment and the Economy. Yet like the man dressed up as Santa we as humanity must adapt to adversity and demonstrate our way of life is worth carrying on and is something so powerful within us that it cannot be conquered easily through fear and uncertainty.

Photo Credits: ww2 photos colorized.

A Father Christmas wearing a tin helmet, walks along Regent Street, London.
23rd December 1940

(Photo source – ‘Life’ Magazine)

(Colorised by Sanna Dullaway from Sweden)https://www.facebook.com/sannadullaway

Even something so simple as a seed, shrouded in darkness of the dirt it is planted in, finds it way to the sun, So how can man expect to not find what he seeks in this life, even when he faces the constant darkness of his own fear and doubt?