A Night At The Opera?

It is time for us all

To decide who we are

Do we fight for the right

To a night at the opera now?

Have you asked of yourselves

What's the price you might pay?

Is this simply a game

For a rich young boy to play?

The colours of the world

Are changing day by day

~ Les Miserables, (the musical), Claude-Michael Schonberg   

We are living in times when long held social norms, religious beliefs, political ideology, and spiritual values are being challenged, tested, ignored, and negotiated.  Human history show us that every few hundred years established cultures must adapt to the very advances in knowledge, technology, and institutions that they themselves bring about. In short, our strengths become our weaknesses, and we become our own worst enemies. 

Such times have always inspired people of vision and imagination to ask the questions, "Who are we? And, how do we be human in our time and place?" Of course these questions lead to other questions. The responses become the foundation for a period of adaptation that leads to new knowledge, technology, and institutions.

Such times are also usually filled with tension, fear, and violence as many people fight against any kind of change and desperately hold on to the familiar, not realizing that this dynamic is inevitable and adaptation leads to survival.  As Jesus once said, "New wine does not fit into old wineskins." 

Another thing history shows us is that how we respond to the questions of transformative times (Who are we? How do we want to live?) determines who we become.