Life's Lessons

"Experience is the hardest teacher. It first gives the test, then the lesson." - Anonymous

Perhaps no other time in our history short of a world war and the Great Depression, has such a challenging time faced us. Perhaps the challenges are even greater today than previously. With the proliferation of the Internet and information sharing, more and more people are connected and yet disconnected at the same time. More information is shared and forgotten more quickly than ever

Ken McCown photograph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenmccown

before. Workers and managers alike are faced with an ever-increasing complexity of information sources and media outlets that we are approaching information overload. Kids today are not happy unless they are playing a game online with their XBox, listening to music or a video on their iPod while texting a friend with the t.v. on in the background. Their minds are constantly engaged with information they process. Perhaps they will never know or appreciate the tranquility my parents' generation knows. Our lives progressively grow more complicated and stressful, yet we want more technology to help us DO MORE (keep up) so we can stay on top of everything.

I digress in an attempt to paint a brief scenario of what our generation has been raised on. They have not faced the challenges or sacrifices our parents and grand parents did during the huge personal crises that were raised from the conflicts of man or the collapse of an economy. But their challenges are just as real. When the stock market collapsed in 1929, there was not awidespread loss around the world as we recently saw with the "financial crisis" on Wall Street in October. Militarily, we are in more theaters of conflict than WWII, and face more enemies than at any time in our history. The enemy is faceless, the battlefield is not readily defined with neat lines drawn on a map in a general's office. The threat can be virtual in an assault on servers or even our financial network as we experienced recently with 9/11 and now the credit crisis.

The point is, in all these instances, there are many lessons, and it is frustratingly apparent we may learn from our lessons, but we don't seem to REMEMBER them! Right after 9-11, Senators sang God Bless America, and with righteous indignation demanded the parties responsible be brought to justice. Within a few short weeks, it was partisan politics as usual. Sniping the President about the war on terror after many of the snipers voted for military action. And now that we are in it, they are wanting to cut and run for political expediency crying "We can't win. There is no hope. The extra troops won't make a difference. They are wanting to come home." Remember some of those comments? They seem pathetic with what has transpired in the last few months.
Iraqis now control most of Iraq, oil is flowing, their budget is bursting at the seams, the infrastructure is gaining strength every day. The surge did work. Senator McCain and the others supporting the surge now look like geniuses. They will simply tell you they listened to the experts- the guys on the ground.
Why is this so hard? We took the test and passed it, however painful it may have been. We have since gathered our lessons, and have tried to learn from them. I just hope we don't forget those lessons, but every day, I fear we grow more and more complacent.