Standing on the edge?

 Despite retirement I remain an early riser after a lifetime of getting up early. I am talking early as in three or four AM, not seven o'clock. Anyway, I get up early and take our old dog outside for at least one of us to relieve the pressure on our bladder. There is no time of day that compares to the early morning peace and quiet at that hour.

The other morning was cold, and the sky was clear. I looked up at the stars and could see several constellations in the sky. My favorite has always been Orion. As I stood there staring up at the stars, I remembered a science class from junior high school. The teacher explained that the constellations were all named by people thousands of years ago who just looked up and tried to explain what they saw.

 Now we are told that our scientists know much more about the stars than we ever have known. But do they really know more? Have they ever been to another star? Have we sent a spacecraft there to bring back evidence? The answer to all of these questions is "No". They take what we know about materials here on our planet and try to apply these things to other places. Is the work of the scientists really that much different than the names and stories about the stars created by some shepherds lying on the side of a hill looking up a few thousand years ago? Once again, the answer is no. The shepherds were taking the sum of their knowledge and applying it to the stars, which is exactly the same thing that scientists do today.

The arrogance of mankind has always been a problem. You need only to pick up a Bible and read that story for yourself. Man continues to believe that we are the ultimate power only to discover that there is no truth in that belief. We think that we can control everything, and we can't. 

Empires all have an expiration date. Good times never last. Nothing lasts forever. Pick an expression that you like but realize that we can't keep going at this pace. It is not like no one has warned us about this. There have been people in the past who tried to tell us about what the future holds. Whether you are reading the Bible or 1984, you will find that no one wants to hear bad news. 

Look around the world today. There's a war in Ukraine that we are borrowing money from China to subsidize. We have no history of a long-term relationship with Ukraine. Why are we doing this? Ukraine was never in the news until the Democrats claimed that it was the lynchpin of our national security when they impeached Trump. Most Americans can't find it on a map. Somebody needs to tell us why!!

There's another war going on in Israel as the Palestinians try to kill all of the Jews, again. Here in the United States, people are marching and rioting to support the Palestinians. Groups who claim to abhor discrimination want to kill people because they are Jews. College students who can't even spell Palestine are supporting the slaughter of Jews.  People are being threatened because of their religion. This is a rerun of the 1930's in Germany. Is Joe Biden the senile Adolf Hitler? Why doesn't the news talk about this point? MAGA Republicans get prosecuted, people advocating killing the Jews do not. AG Garland, I would like an explanation.

In the late 1930's, Germany had the best military in the world. They used that force to spread their message of hate across Europe and into other continents. Now, the Palestinians are using terrorism as their force to spread their message around the world. This is not a new development. Does anyone remember the Munich Olympics in 1972?

Israel is a small country. They have one of the best militaries in the world. They may actually have the best air force in the world. Probably because they get so much practice. They can probably resist the Palestinian attacks with conventional force and weapons. But be advised that Israel has nuclear weapons and if the situation gets bad enough, I am certain that they would use them. Then what? It might be time to read that Book of Revelation again. 

So how does all of this tie in to looking at the stars on a cold fall night while walking the dog? Two years ago, Aaron Lewis had a song called "Am I the only one?" You are already online; you can find it easily. I prefer the uncensored version. As I stood there looking up at the stars, I remembered this line from the song, "Am I standing on the edge of the end of time?" There's a thought for you to ponder as you watch the news.