The Seventh Wave.

There is a deeper wave than this rising in the land.
-Sting

It is easy to get discouraged these days:   Faceless companies with money and power to spare seem to be able to get away with endless greed, theft, and destruction, without accountability.  The progress we once made towards clean water and air seems to backslide, our ideals of equal rights and opportunities wear uncomfortably thin, and our civil liberties are becoming a faint memory. The leaders on which we have probably heaped an unreasonable amount of hope seem to fall far short of our expectations in plugging the cracks in the dams.

Being a dad changes one’s world in countless ways.  For one, you learn that big developmental growth is usually preceded by regression.  I feel like that is where we are worldwide.  The mind-boggling advances in technology and science right now have the potential to lead us into a golden age of affordable, clean energy sources and more sustainable lifestyles.  All around me I see renewed interest in community-building and in taking care of those around us.

In a previous age, where overconsumption was a sign of wealth and prestige, the Gluttons would participate in eating contests in which the contestants would consume entire animals, hooves, horns and all.  Of course, the prize meant little when death followed soon after due to the sharp bones lodging in a stomach or small intestine.  The big banks, oil companies and insurers – the modern day patrons of the vomitorium – cannot possibly digest all they are attempting to devour from the rest of the world’s tables.  Like the behemoths before them: the Mongols, Alexander’s, the Romans, and the Soviet Block, the giant multinational corporations are going to be swept away by new waves of technology, innovation, and the human spirit.

Surfers talk of the seventh wave being the strongest, the one you want to ride.

Bill Zebuhr predicts that the next generation of technology and true knowledge will be the seventh wave.  Sting sings of Love as the seventh wave.  I believe these are both true. I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll hang out on my board for a while, enjoy the water and wait for the big one.