We have to work to make things better

New Year's Day 2018 rapidly approaches. It has been another cycle of the calendar. Another year, another series of typical losses of people both celebrity and common. Political discourse that inflames a segment of the population.

Environmental concerns at a variety of scales. The everyday, seemingly unending struggle for people to climb an imaginary ladder of personal, social and financial success. A bloating of minor achievements into something the average human being can regard as an indication of progress.

A pronouncement in the hope of a better future. A glimpse at the media's portrayal of another passing year plants the seeds of cynicism at some point in time. It might begin with children, form in young adults, infect a middle-aged person or linger in the minds of the elderly.

We are told to believe we are fine. We are told that the established philosophies and hierarchies of society are fine. Yet we see something different in our lives.

There is a chronic human condition with roots in religious, socio-economic and basic values that requires immediate attention. Our brains are constructing personal and world views built with the motto, 'tomorrow is going to be better.'

People's desired changes in relationships and business, public policy and community, the environment and individual lifestyles must be addressed in the current moment. The path we tread slowly bends and, if we are not attentive, we might find ourselves at the end of the next year having traveled in a simple circle with slightly higher prices and the same basic problems that people encountered many, many years ago.

Willis Lambertson

Barrington