In the beginning..

Of course it matters not where from we come, but where we head. The past is history, the future is mystery, today's a gift, which is why it may be called the present.

As a species we tend to get caught up in our histories, "I'm an Irish Catholic," or "I'm from St. Louis," or "I'm the youngest son of 3 and a middle child of 5," or "I left the church in my teen years, under Jesuit tutelage," as if it matters. It may matter to some but only if you're looking in the rearview mirror. As any driving instructor will tell you, that's not how you get down the highway.

My friend Chris Harkins once told me his favorite driver's ed. dictum, "Aim high when steering," and this has stayed with me ever since. I use it sometimes to sign off on emails, "Aim high when steering."

I don't despair about human survival, but I am concerned about how we treat each other, and what it means to our survival possibilities. Can't we all just get along?

Quick tell me who was the richest man in Jerusalem in 33 AD? How about the most powerful person in China in 500 BCE? Or maybe the ruler of India in 2500 BCE? But I know you know the names of Jesus of Nazareth, Lao Tse, and The Buddha. Why is this important?

Because what matters most is not the quantity of one's life, but the quality, and I don't mean Mercedes versus Yugo.

The people that made an impact on history, that inspired devotion, that alleviated suffering, were not business people amassing great wealth. They were the ones schooled in the art of wisdom and compassion. And they looked forward, not backward for their strength.

The Buddha said, and I paraphrase, Look not to the source of your karma, it is an imponderable, an exercise in futility, as your karma is so many different streams all flowing together. Just as the wounded man asks not who shot the poison arrow, but what is the remedy for the poison, so we should look to what is happening now and how we are reacting to it. This is what creates a healthy future.

My teacher Gail Minogue told me a similar insight. She works as a sacred geometrix, a numerologist, who is able to see past lives and future lives written in our names. She said, "Many people ask me, What was my past life? but few bother to ask, What is my future life? It is just as obvious if you know what to look for. But by and large people are more concerned about where they came from, not where they are going."

So too, if we get hung up on what our history is, we lose sight of the goal. Too many people are caught on an unhealthy attachment on their pedigree, and we spend a lot of time effort and money and blood preserving our history.

My wish is that we spent as much on where we are heading as a species, listen to the great teachers like Jesus (Love one another) Buddha (Follow the way of the middle) and Lao Tse (The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step) and in the immortal words of the unknown driving instructor, Aim high when steering!