It's you... Not Me

The thing which differentiates and elevates us above nature allgemein is that we build, we change, we alter, we believe, we test, we explore, we do. This weekend has been a reminder to me of how powerful the human spirit and mind are. Between the birth of a new member to my family and being witness to the First Communion of my niece, I'm amazed in our ability to believe and to evolve - sometimes in a split second. J & J were afraid about having a child... E was afraid of how she'd do on her piece of the mass... All three (with the fourth added) succeeded and were changed through their success in ways we will never fully understand. I walk away from weekends like these realizing how powerful having children in ones midst can be. I think of aging populations in countries such as Japan or even Germany (where the death rate is outpacing that of births) and wonder what type of subtile impact that has on the morale of a culture. Even ours will be impacted by this change - and the real question is how. I know through times like this weekend, though, that that change will be serious and the impact potentially fatal.