As I started to write my Monday Thoughts, I wanted to honor July 4th by wishing happy birthday to all Americans on this date. But, at the same time, I started to wonder why I was feeling trepidation about writing this and it made me think a little bit deeper about where we are today on our 246th birthday as a country. 

For starters, if you read my Monday Thoughts and you haven’t figured this out, I tend to be an optimist. My head is never in the sand, but my default is to look for the good in people and the positive potential embedded in humanity. 

I’m a product of the 60s and 70s so I could tell you firsthand that I’ve seen a lot of things in my life and I have fought my way through a lot of hardships. I don’t come from money, I come from a broken household and I have felt persecution as a result of my Jewish faith. But, I do believe in the greater good, I rarely try to characterize things in “all or nothing“ accounts and I’ve always believed that it is my mission to help others better understand themselves and their pure potential, and that is why I got into education; I’ve always loved the task of mentoring people. 

The world is 4 1/2 billion years old. Humans have been on the planet for just 200,000 years, and only in the last 100,000 years have the current form of humans existed. 10,000 years ago we went through the Agricultural Revolution and only 500 years ago did we go through the Scientific Revolution. The modern world and our cultural norms are very young and considerably fragile. 

I suggest that we take a pause and think about the greater good, think about what we can do to help the people around us, give others the benefit of the doubt and accept the things we can’t change. While it feels like there’s so much noise all around us, our quality of life compared to the history of mankind has never been remotely as good as it is today. 

Our country has always stood as a beacon for freedom and a massive point of change against the backdrop of the world. I’m grateful to share this note with you on this holiday and hope that everybody can take a pause and respect how hard it has been to get here and appreciate the blessings that we share as Americans.