Relevance

Our world circles the sun, the sun sits in the outer reaches of a galaxy that circles its center, our galaxy presumably is moving at great speed away from the origin of the time-space continuum and will at some point reach the end of that continuum perhaps to start a new one.  Life started from a freak accident, or God began it, it evolved from random happenstance, or by intelligent design, our lives just are, or they have a greater purpose, and in the end there is only the end; or there is heaven.

For people who are concerned with more than survival, there is a lot to think about and the choices made -- lead down the path that, at its end, defines a life.  I wonder how we determine what is relevant and what is not?  How do we decide what issues excite us and what are just boring?  Which battles do we fight, or what opportunities do we take?

These are interesting times, but then I think all times must be interesting to the humans who occupy them.   The combative nature of man is a primal aspect of who we are; it has assured our survival and may mark our doom.  There does not seem to be any issue with universal acceptance and agreement on what is right or what is wrong, what is important or what is not, what should outrage or what should inspire us.

Lets consider, for a moment, a couple of current examples I see contrasted in the news and social media.

First there is the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist from Philadelphia who stands accused of murdering one patient and seven infants who survived their abortion.   Most of the mainstream news outlets find nothing of national significance in this case.  There is nothing worthy of reporting on, or in the words of one outlet, this is just a “local story,” look elsewhere for your news. It is only the contrarian outlets like Fox or conservative talk radio that find the story newsworthy for a national audience.  On the other side, we have national attention and political interest focused on the gun industry and citizens who choose to own guns, because of the violence done to children and adults by a number of offenders.  I am not so naïve as not understand why, but it does seem to be a curious process on how relevance is determined.

I've drawn this picture of how I think it works.  I am certainly open to other views.

For what it’s worth, I am afraid as we move on in time, with each side taking absolute positions with an open intolerance for opposing views, the areas where we find common ground and common relevance shrinks.