eroding Foundations, #2

Something To Think About, Learning from others failures:

"What should have been done?"  That was a question I posed for thought at the end of the last STTA.  When we see houses getting ready to slide into the sea--metaphorically, or in reality--we have an urge to do something.  The problem is about all we can do is put up props.  Knee-jerk reactions are generally ineffective.  Often they are downright dangerous.  So, when I suggest that we should ask what should have been done in the past, I'm suggesting more than historical curiosity.  The current storm isn't the last storm that will come.  Gravity, tides, wind, and rain are ongoing realities.  Clearly, someone failed to adequately reckon on these forces.  The fact that a house is falling into the ocean is clear evidence. In the ethical/moral realm as well as in the physical world, often the answer to the question is the structure should have been built in a different place.  This, of course, is the conclusion of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount.   The house built on the sand was doomed from the beginning.  Those who build lives on personal pleasure, marriages on nothing more than physical beauty, or ethical systems on individual preference, are building edifices that are sure to crash.  When I was a kid a favorite pass-time was building "tree forts."  I can still remember visually inspecting the critical tree-limbs, even bouncing up and down on them, to see if they would bear the load.  Generally, my friends and I had instincts that were sufficient.  Our arboreal engineering marvel stayed in the tree.  I remember one time though, I think it was my little brother and his crowd, drove the final nail in a much abused apple tree.  The entire tree, tree fort, remainders of past constructions, and all, just toppled over. Don't build unless you are sure the foundation is secure. It's Something To Think About.