Cotolo Chronicles

Are we better off than before?

On Sundays I reflect. After all, the Lord rested on Sunday, wondering why it took three whole days to create a planet. Still, he liked what he had done and no one else in Heaven dared criticize it. So, on Sunday, I reflect.

Today I think about things we had, the way things were and how we have it now and the way things are. Now is a strange time in our lives, because we have things we never had before. Still, our fathers and grandfathers were saying that about things they had and never had before. And that claim can go back as far as prehistoric man, if you believe in that stuff. So every generation, it seems, can reflect on the question, "Are we better off than before?"

To judge "before" and "now" is to make them two different times in which we had and had not. But before was once now and now will become before and then what? Can now that becomes before be worse? Can before have been so bad that now, before it is before, be harmful? Maybe they are both impotent in their impact and we are no better off than before and no worse off than now.

Think of this: All you have just read is now before and what you are reading now is now. Are you better off than when you began to read this? Maybe you are not the one to judge. Maybe you should just shut up and stay out of trouble? And, if you want to be a good man, now is certainly the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party. But, would you have been better off if you came to the aid of that party before? What were you thinking by waiting so long? Did you think it would be better off to come now just because of an old saying?

Maybe it is time for you to reflect this Sunday since you have so many questions. I'm going hunting.