Everything that expands also contracts. Call it balance. There is a cycle to life. We are born and everything is new. We expand daily. We can’t learn enough fast enough, try enough new things. We experiment daily, with boundless energy. In the expansion phase of life, everything is possible in the excitement of each new day. Then as years pass, the mind may or may not expand, but the body contracts. People even get shorter. The dimensions of the world we live in contract, too. The lesson appears to be that we should expand while and how we can.

All living things have their day, says the Bible. Trees can grow to be centuries old and then one day, man cuts them down. Some people swear that trees cry when they die. They have borne silent witness to man’s foolishness for so long, and in an instant their vigil is over.

Empires rise up and conquer, spreading their will and their way over the world for good or evil. Then their power wanes, and they contract into oblivion or become just another player.

Even the planet’s surface expands and contracts. Islands suddenly emerge or disappear under water. Mountains thrust upward and wear down. Configurations change. Many believe global warming will have a serious affect on our planet. Others deny that such a phenomenon exists, or that we humans are in any way responsible. Whichever belief turns out to be true, it remains to be seen whether it leads to expansion or contraction. of our Earth.

Then there are the animals that from over-fishing, poaching, and senseless killing become extinct. Not a natural contraction, just an ending to myriad species.

In an amusing irony, the Bible also says, “And the last shall be first.” It is generally acknowledged that those who will survive long after we are all gone are the insects, in particular cockroaches. Those brittle, hated, reviled creatures, literally stepped on, may well inherit the Earth.

And a new cycle will begin.

Oliver & Barbara