Stand As A Lighthouse

"When everything is moving at once, nothing appears to be moving...but if someone stops, he shows up the others who are rushing on, by acting as a fixed point.  We, you and I - must be that fixed point."  - Bruce Hafen

I read this quote the other day and was instantly struck by how true to life it is.  We often think of change as a prerequisite for progress.  We clamor for change in better technology, higher standards of living, more efficient government, and so forth.  And so society moves, constantly changing and we call it progress.  We look back on history and exclaim how grateful we are to live today rather than in years past because of how far we have come.  But there are some things, I imagine, for which society may one day look back and say, "What we once called progress we can now plainly see was digression.  We were actually better off before."  And I suppose that in nothing would this be more true than as it relates to what we, as a society, consider our moral code.  For the harder we cling to the premise of tolerance without limits, the more slack becomes our grip on that which is our moral compass.  And on this front, as the world changes, it is up to you and I to stand as a fixed point, a lighthouse to those who are tossed about on the waves of the sea, supposing that all is well only to recognize long afterward how far they have moved from the safety of land...