by Julius Albert Custodio

Created on: February 25, 2009   Last Updated: March 20, 2009

There's an African proverb that sums it up: "For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."

Our future is a fruit, ripe for the picking. It may bring us much-needed salvation or ultimately, our eventual extinction. Before we can even fathom what the future may bring, we have to look at one thing first: Ourselves.

We cannot judge the next generation unless we see what we have left for them to work on. If we can manage to convince ourselves that we have made a completely faultless image in which we will mold the citizens of tomorrow, then we can definitely say that we will have a better future. But from the looks of it, the legacy we are leaving them is not that "pure". In fact, when you see what's happening in the world today, you will notice a depressing and bleak picture. It's so depressing, you might as well jump off a building. In an epic scale, the future may be a terrifying and undeniably real conclusion to the human race.

See? That doesn't sound so good now, does it?

It's easy to look at it as an overused cliche but in the end, we only have ourselves to blame. You see it in the news: People killing each other, day in and day out. It certainly leaves nothing to be desired. Come to think of it, we subject ourselves to this constant torture and yet most of us don't do anything about it. We just sit on our La-Z-Boys, shake our heads in sympathy, and then continue on with our lives as if nothing has happened. Of course, that's just an educated assumption. There are still pro-active people out there who would rise to the challenge of cleaning up after the jerks who "dirtied up" the world.

Is this the legacy we're leaving our children?

An ongoing economic crisis which is karma's way of "rewarding" our selfishness. Poverty that should be looked upon and tackled, but no one really cares about. Religious wars that seem to never end unless one side completely obliterates the other. These are but some of the issues we are currently facing. As cruel as the reflection on the mirror is, this is who we are as a people. If we are to judge the future generation based on what they are capable of, then we're clearly out of line. I think we should also have the audacity to be ashamed of ourselves, as we are the shining examples they look up to. The things we do and don't do are shaping up their future. Right now, the only clear-cut picture we can see is a future filled with problems, problems and more of the same.

Right now, we are traversing a winding road filled with nastiness and spite. Unless we do something about it, it will spell our eventual doom. Now, tell me: With the way our world is turning out right now, is it so wrong to embrace the future with unwilling hands? What do you think?

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