Now granted not all children are happy or even have the opportunity for happiness; and those that do are not happy all the time, but when I look back on my childhood, most of my memories are of happiness and joy about everything. I had no balance sheet or income statement. I owed no taxes or bills and was completely unaware of world-events or problems that might impact me. I was focused on my immediate emotional, physical and intellectual –as they were—transactions with my local environment. And now as a Grandfather, I can see this same joy in my grandkids and I just cannot find the words to express my gratitude, thankfulness and happiness just to get the opportunity to see them play and interact with their environment as I once did. This represents a profound renewal for me and a chance to remember my sweeter, more innocent times when all manner of things could bring me joy.

So today, we as a nation and we as a global village, will soon face –what will be in my opinion– the greatest threat to humanity since records have been written. There is no clear exit plan or strategy that can completely avoid this; even for those who have made and accumulated massive fortunes by corrupting the system we all depend on, have no guarantee of a prosperous or even tolerable future when the last feather is plucked from that golden-egg-laying goose. So this is Mother Nature’s way of saying she has had enough corruption and now it is time to slough off the dead and decaying to bring forth a new system. With few exceptions, history has taught us that new systems are rarely as good or kind as the old ones; it does provide a unique and short opportunity-window for positive change to make a better system; but the system we get is completely dependent on us, and we must learn from our mistakes. So get busy learning and thinking and working on the new system you want, because “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “The chance won’t come again”.

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.