Circle and Look

A new life enters the world. Another life exits. A wave builds, a wave crashes. Life goes on, the ocean flows. Does the wave that crashes on the shore have any affect? Does the butterfly that flaps its wing expect any results beyond its flight? As our lives age and eventually wane, we look to the new ones, the young lives for which anything is possible. When my grandfather was young, most people traveled by horse and wagon. There was no penicillin, no areal anesthesia, no space travel, no computers and no bikinis. What will things be like in 50 yrs? in 20 yrs? Will we be the dinosaurs, the quaint black and white movies, the scratchy vinyl records? Hopefully, we won't be the clunky 8-track tapes.

Pull back from 20 yrs, to 50 yrs, to 100 yrs, to 500 yrs, to 1000 yrs, to 10,000 years. Will any of this matter - will we matter? Will anything that we do have any affect? Or does everything we do have an affect, like the butterfly that flaps its wings? Perhaps, the door we open for another, the kiss we give to a new born, ripples across eternity.

The new born is carried out of the hospital. A 2004 Honda Accord stops in front. A mother helps her 9 year old daughter out of the car, gingerly minding her arm that she prays is OK. The young girl, holding her arm, looks at the new baby and wonders...