What the Future Looks Like

I love this photo.

Taken by Dean Black and sent to me just now by my grandfather, it tells a powerful story.

The man on the left is Thomas Anschütz of the German air force.  He's shaking hands with my grandpa, Ed Carter-Edwards, who served as an airman for Canada during World War II.

The photo was taken at a ceremony commemorating the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where horrific acts of humanity were carried out by the Nazi SS.  You can see the camp gate building at the top left.

Had these men met during the war, they would have been enemies on the field of combat.  Yet it was a man from the German Luftwaffe who arranged for The Lost Airmen of Buchenwald to be transferred to a proper POW camp.

Today, though, these two got on famously.  They've remained in contact since the commemoration.

This is what the future looks like - not the trench warfare of modern politics or the "destroy their careers" mentality of ardent partisans.  Those are the kinds of tactics that lead to actual war and actual extermination attempts.

We need to stop retreating into past battles and start looking to build sustainable relationships for the future.  Live together, die alone, etc.

It's as simple as that.

I don't know about you, but if we're gonna end up there anyway, I say we start now.  

It's not like we're getting any younger.