MAKING YOUR MILES COUNT Robert D. Scheper
These are difficult times! These are difficult times we live in, not the worst, but still difficult. Our parents, grandparents or even great grandparents lived through World War 2 or maybe even the depression. They may have had to deal with issues difficult to explain, never mind navigate. Even still, our times have very peculiar dangers. North America is in a civil war; not with guns and bullets but with words, ideologies, health/safety and politics. The dangers of these circumstances may be just as devastating to our lives as bullets. Workplace circumstances can be a social landmine and even a family gathering can be intensely divisive. “The first casualty of War is Truth” was coined in 2018. Earlier still, Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”. That was almost a century before the internet. I think a lie can now travel ten times faster than the truth did a century ago while simultaneously becoming ten times more prolific. Lies (fake news) are not the exclusive domain of only one side of a hotly disputed national topic. I have personally investigated an issue from both perspectives and found gross misrepresentations and lies peddled by BOTH sides. When I confronted one origin, they simply said their counterpart lies constantly so to balance out perspectives, you must “create passion” in the other direction. 6 • OVER THE ROAD
So, lies justify lying? Is this what will reconcile division? Of course not! We must accept that some people are lost in their passions and fear and will not return on their own accord. I read a fair number of books and I like catchy titles. One of my favorite titles is Andy Grove’s book “Only the Paranoid Survive”. In summary, it is a management book that tells his story of surviving in an environment of continuous change. My all-time favorite book title is by Harvey Mackay “Beware of the Naked Man who offers you his Shirt”. There is a story for everyone in that title alone. Though I don’t read as many books as some, I keep my library focused on what I call “classics”. Books that are not timesensitive or “faddish”. They hold wisdom for decades and centuries to come. Someone can read them a hundred years from now and still learn something applicable. In the high conflict media environment (social and mainstream+) there are many more opinions and outright lies (fake news) than there is truth. If there is truth out there, it is being drowned out by disinformation. On a pleasant note, fewer and fewer are listening to all forms of lies. People are becoming overloaded with information and dis-information and tuning out the yelling masses, preferring to walk their dog than to listen/watch the news. There is hope for the wise. JUNE 2021
