Monochrome Monday – Finding Hope

I was being a bit lazy today so no Actifit post but...

For #monochromemonday as started by @old-guy-photos I would like to post this black and white picture that Google Photos made of a photo I took of a small stream:

A small stream near where we camped

Sometimes it feels to me like black and white photography simplifies things. I can picture the stream looking very much like it might have looked a hundred years ago. We can hope that the stream will look very much the same in the next hundred years.

Lots of things are changing very rapidly though. The future looks very uncertain. In a way that very uncertainty is something to be hopeful about.

We don’t know what the economy will do. Many people are very worried about the deficit spending of many countries around the world. Environmental and social pressures are forcing many people to move from their homes to other locations. Places where farming was traditionally done are no longer producing food. Some banks are turning to negative interest as central banks keep lowering interest rates and doing quantitative easing. So called safe assets like bonds don’t seem really that safe any more.

Perhaps this economic uncertainty could have people looking for other safe haven assets to invest in. Hopefully one of those assets could be Steem and the price could go up. (I’m often buying little chunks of Steem so this is not exactly an unbiased hope for me, lol)

Many places that you look, unless you are a Pollyanna optimist it is difficult to find hope.

Parts of the world appear to be becoming uninhabitable through sea level rise, temperature extremes, flooding and storms. Rebuilding structures and adding sea walls in some of these areas many not be a productive use of resources at this time. I think we are seeing a partial collapse of services in many places.

How can this be hopeful?

The present way we are doing things has not worked well for many people and something has to change. The very physics of the situation makes it so - yet people are very slow to change unless change is thrust upon them.

There are many solutions out there to many of the issues we face and people are very resourceful. Uncertainty is in our favor and who knows, perhaps tomorrow someone will discover a room temperature super conductor or some other game changing technology. Maybe societies will become a lot more cooperative with each other and find better more efficient methods of utilizing resources.

Perhaps we really don’t know what the future will bring. Somehow I find this hopeful.

There is an old Zen story that relates somewhat to the this: The Zen Master, The Boy, & The Horse

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Thanks for reading! I always value your support and comments. The picture was taken by me with my Galaxy S9+ and modified in software. Text and graphics copyright lightsplasher & litesplasher.