I confess I’ve been feeling a bit antsy as I wait for help with the blog that should be underway from a couple of fairly big guns that recently offered to aid the cause. I know intellectually that these things don’t happen overnight, but the reality that my life is bleeding out as time goes by is always on my mind, that every day that passes while I remain a prisoner is gone forever. There are no do-overs. What keeps me reasonably sane?

Happily, I can think of a few reasons without even straining:

It seems that the value of the internet as a vital communication tool is growing exponentially. I’ve maintained for years that the internet is several magnitudes of importance more significant to humankind than the invention of movable type was and that view is being reaffirmed more and more all the time. There are an awful lot of potentially dangerous situations evolving in the world, but for the first time in history they haven’t simply overrun humanity like a juggernaut, with nothing to impede them. It’s clear, at least to me, that while they continue to threaten, they are being thwarted more and more by peoples’ ability to forestall many of them by assuring they’re kept visible and monitored with little opportunity for behind the scenes manipulation by individuals or groups that in the past could have concealed their doings with ease. That’s a validation of the aphorism ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant,’ and one of my biggest hopes is that the internet remains unmolested.

In that line, I get a strong feeling that even an ordinary schmoe like me can make a difference in the world by writing, discussing and helping educate people on a lot of issues that were simply swept under the rug before the internet came into prominence. It’s a truism that truths mesh seamlessly in every aspect while falsehoods and irrationality clash all the time…the internet is no different, but it has the bonus of speed. Since things happen faster, people can see this truism proven over and over much more easily than in the past, and can see the patterns that emerge more efficiently. We may be witnessing the beginning of a genuinely new paradigm in human affairs, and that’s mighty encouraging!

So, yeah, I have my days when frustration and pain threaten to overtake me, but these negatives can never be overshadowed by the positives…all the factors that sustain me and give me very real hope for the future. Hope not just for me, but for humanity in general that things are quietly improving in a steady way…and it’s accelerating.