New Horizons by Max Roy

          Living For The Future Have you given some thought to the world we live in? Our earth is a happy accident, close enough to our sun to give us warmth in the summer, some chills in the winter, but far enough so that we kept our atmosphere and are shielded from toxic rays emitted by that body. Everywhere we have looked in our system we have not found another place where humans are viable. The last paroxysm our planet faced only made our supremacy more possible, more likely. What have we done with our heritage? Many of those who comment on that issue keep giving us a failing mark. I don’t see it that way. What was life like for humans five hundred, one thousand, years ago? The mere fact that we are now almost eight billion souls today, compared with the past, gives us the evidence that humans are flourishing on this spot in the universe. It may be that we will reach a point that population will stabilize, birth rates reach a balance with ...

        What Are We Willing To Die For? It has been a long time that we have lived under the umbrella of the Pax Americanus that we inherited from the arming of the U.S. lion to bring us that monumental victory. We have had the good part of one hundred years of relative peace under that umbrella. But that time is over as America must share world leadership with other great powers, China being the most important. There are others as well that hold the nuclear deterrent, different from the time when this was shared only with the Soviets. Even a trimmed down Russia is a principal because of its nuclear missile holdings. Before many were having to struggle to stay alive. Before that time millions died to defend the lives they had lived, were hoping to live. The choices were being confronted every day, and people did what they had to without thinking. There were few in the way of choices. During World War II   we knew what we were fighting for, what we ...

                        What’s In A Life? Born as we are with no conception of why, with no idea of who we are, where we are, or what it is all about, when we come to our senses we have a lot of stuff to work out. What the circumstances turn out to be, of necessity, gives us clues as we go along. We draw conclusions, rightly or wrongly, from the position we find ourselves in. If we are born in Africa, or India, or China, Europe or America, the place can make a world of difference. If we are born to an single mother in a slum or to the daughter of a member of a ruling class in an ordered society, makes all the difference in the world. If we are born in full possession of our faculties it can make all the difference in an ordered society or no difference at all if we are born into a world of chaos. If we have parents who value your life and are eager to invest in it, our prospect...

          I Am Younger Than That Now!* No matter where you are in the cycle of your life, I wonder if you ever sit down to think about it. I say cycle, because I do believe that a cycle does exist for all of us that we don’t often think about in that way. I don’t know how it was for you, but I remember my early years as entirely focused on wresting a promising future from prospects that did not appear too bright. Life involved a deadly serious struggle against odds that were not in my favor. Even more, I was convinced that we were not just present on earth for no reason, but we had a destiny to fulfill achievements that had huge import for humanity. I was old beyond my years, deadly serious about pursuing the tasks before me, indeterminate though they were. My focus was on finding an important public purpose, and resolutely fulfilling my responsibilities in that roIe. I was probably not much fun to be with. Many decades later, I believe I am...