I spent a day at the lake this weekend, staring out on the water and simply pondering.

As I am inundated on a daily basis by willful ignorance, I turn to look at my 2 children and ponder. What role do I have in leaving a legacy, or guiding them on their personal journey of self-discovery? What tools am I giving them to make their way through the multitude of opinions and power-grabs? What confidence can exist in a world governed by popularity rather than humanity?

I could, and do at times, fret over society’s joint ignorance and futile grasping at truth-sellers. To avoid the truth laid bare and accept a lie that comforts rather than confronts. To think that one person somehow has more value than another, simply by the conditions of their birth. That the stratification of education and knowledge is some duty born by self-elected gatekeepers.

It is evident that society resists change and that said change can take a very long time. We have ample evidence of such. Our growing ability to share is offset by our inherent need to protect. There is so much out there, that it can seem like staring into an abyss, and with that, who can truly judge someone simply turning around for the safety of the familiar.

Humanity has a beautiful flaw, in that it pushes back against the inherent chaotic nature of the universe. This is an upstream battle that will last well after we turn to dust. We kick and scream for a place at the table, where we are but a crumb on an intergalactic scale.

I get by on a word shared by many, and that is one of faith. Not faith in that the answers will be laid bare if I simply submit to the will of another, but faith in the grander humanity. I marvel at the magical randomness of cosmic order. That every day we unlock another fractional facet of this eternal mystery. I have faith not in that there are answers, but that we will search for them.

That is the path upon which I guide my children, the legacy of continual search for knowledge, and the character to face the abyss and not look away.