Perilous Times

by Michael J. Ilardo

Nothing is easy. The path of least resistance is going to end with us in a ditch or maybe worse. Life today is not harder than say during the dark ages or during the Depression. But it sure seems like it.

One reason I think life feels so hard for the millennial generation and above is there is an onslaught of events and mantras and circumstances that have created a generation not prepared for the storms of life. I am not knocking anyone, I am saying that someone, somewhere dropped the ball and the hardships that used to make us, tend now to break us.

Technology combined with isolation is a deadly mix. I am learning to blog, and I thought it was just writing a silly post here and there. I was dead wrong. Blogging requires a whole bunch of things, such as learning to host, learning to edit pages, and add plugins, and affiliates and be able to navigate a lot of things. You basically have the course load of a college course or more, but these things are all on line. People are there to help, but it’s not like raising your hand in class. There is no professor to see after class to clarify something. There is no one telling you there is an exam on Monday so you better have the first 6 chapters down solid by the end of this week.

If you start an on line business you basically have to be everything and then some. You are the secretary, the marketer, the PR, the HR, the VP, and the VIP. If you don’t have a college degree in business and an MBA it is very intimidating, and instead of being offered help through this, you are made to feel you are a failure because you can’t operate on all cylinders right out of the gate.

I think today we are really lacking that community of old that used to pull together when things got rough. Today it seems everything is learning toward division, isolation, and we are stressed to the max so we see getting to know our neighbors or having friends over as more stress. It’s more appealing to have the head under the covers and just talk to our dogs.

So many people either think everything going on right now is normal, or everyone is the enemy and can’t be trusted. It seems like post 9/11 the America of our childhood seemed to be gone, and what replaced it just seems to be a more hardened, cruel, stressed, overwhelmed version.

We really have been in over our heads for a long time, but it seems that we continue to try and fake it til we make it, or just blindly keep going forward. The tension gets stronger, the destiny gets cloudier, the destination seems further off then when we headed off.

My guess is the next election will further divide our nation, whether it’s another Trump run, or the polar Anti-Trump that gets elected.

I don’t think it’s just me seeing all this. This generation seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It has a low frustration tolerance. It has a microwave and disposable mentality whether you are talking about appliances or relationships. Most people seem 2 events from bankruptcy and 3 events from totally snapping and going off the deep end.

The Crisis hotline for Help for America number’s been disconnected, out of service, and has been changed.

The half way recovery house for Americans packed up and moved in the middle of the night one day, and didn’t leave a forwarding address.

I can’t place my finger on exactly what is going on but my observation is three fold : 1. America is in a mess and doesn’t realize it. 2. America refuses to humble itself and get back to trying to fix the problem and 3. This generation is good at complaining about everything but is not prepared to do anything about it.

America’s got talent, yes. But I think it lacks the character to go beyond that, and it lacks the gratitude and generosity of years ago. Today you see some kind acts to people, but coincidentally you have an edited video to go right along with it and catch every detail. There was a day when a man did go buy a few hundred dollars of hamburgers for the homeless but it wasn’t videotaped and edited and viewed all over Facebook land.

I think the social media and the Pinterest perfection posting has created a country of people who are never satisfied and never feel enough. Does it not seem odd that people in 3rd world countries with nothing are happy, have kids who are happy, have relationships at church and with neighbors and they actually seem to enjoy each other, and they don’t feel depressed because they don’t have something someone else has? How do WE end up spending $300 at Wal Mart on Tuesday and by Friday we already have a whole list of things that we suddenly realize we need?

This never enough, never good enough, never get ahead, endless running to and fro seems to be things the bible warned us about 2,000 years ago about the end times, but I don’t know. All I know is it seems to be getting worse and speeding up and the stress level seems to be amped up and the full speed out of control runaway train called America seems to be hurtling downward with ever increasing fury.

I want to be a blog in the wilderness, maybe give some hope to a world that has given up. There used to be a day when a cancer diagnosis meant something. When someone threatened suicide and people rallied behind him. Now it seems every man for himself, and cancer is so commonplace, it’s looked as no big deal. Someone facing suicide just needs to man up. People really aren’t stronger to deal with issues – the issues are simply blown over today as no one wants to bleed with you, cry with you, walk you through this.

I think too much of life has turned into a do-it-yourself, good luck with that, happy trails, bon voyage, best wishes type of send offs.

I am blogging thinking maybe an answer will pop out of me. Maybe I will in the midst of observing this vague falling away, that a voice will come from above. “Mike, tell them to get on their knees and repent in sack cloth and ashes!” God tried to get Jonah to do that and Jonah ran away. I am brave behind a computer, but I think I would run away just as fast if I had to be that voice of reason. Instead, like everyone else it is easier to be the voice of complaint.

It starts maybe with me. Will I fast and pray for America one day a week? I used to be a man of faith and prayer that had great hope for this world and was exited to see where things were going. I need to get that spark again. It’s not over. God is not done with me. I have a purpose, I was given a talent to write for a reason.

For such a time as this.

HOPE. That is one thing I need to convey. That is the one thing I need to instill. Instead of complaining about the state of the world. Yes the world is a mess. Yes our kids are media addicted just like we are media addicted. Yes, it is perilous times and we are frustrated and don’t know what to do so we tend to do nothing. Yes, the next election could send us straight into a socialistic graveyard. But the things that used to make America great – character, integrity, faith, charity, compassion, neighborly love, care, concern, time for each other, respect for life and respect for each other, true patriotism – need to be rediscovered and appreciated again.

In today’s society where you don’t want to offend anyone, the greatest offense has taken place. We have turned inward, and isolated, and stopped wanting to get involved with life.

We need to return to what once was America. What made America great. That’s truly what would make America Great again.