Fair 45° F

Home > Archive > Feb 7, 2008

“HOME COUNTRY” - More Then a Column Heading
By Al Cooper
More then three decades ago, Alfred Toffler wrote a landmark book titled “Futureshock,” in which he attempted to look ahead into the times in which we now live.  He used such startling subtitles as, The Throw Away Society, The Economics of Impermanence, Monday to Friday Friends, The Fractured Family, and Training Children for Turnover.
Every now and then I pull my well-worn copy of Toffler's book, from my shelf and revisit his depressing predictions. And I must acknowledge that to a remarkable – and disquieting – degree, his forecasts were accurate.
Without attempting to dissect the complexities of modern life or to micro-analyze what's wrong with the cultural environment in which we are now raising our families, I yet believe we have the power in us to make more of this life then most of us do. I also believe that each of us has within us something which can help others in our search for personal happiness and secure families.
More then five decades ago, I returned from a Far Eastern war, just out of my teens, but with a perspective which had been shaped and matured by experiences beyond my years. Looking back on that and subsequent homecomings, I would one day write in my personal journal:
“Everyone should have a Home Place; a place and a time of roots and beginnings. A place to which – no matter how far away life's journeys have taken us – we can return from time to time with that unmistakable sense of coming home. Without such an anchor it is easy to lose our perspective, and forget who we are. The business of living often breeds a cynicism which robs us of vision and dulls our ability to feel things deeply. We somehow forget how to see beauty and goodness in small and simple things; to derive pleasure from the mere dreaming of dreams. We forge that we are who we are because of the people, the places and the experiences which have shaped our lives. And in doing so, we unintentionally lose contact with a resource so precious it must be counted as one of life's greatest treasures.”
In this bi-weekly “Focus” column, called HOME COUNTRY, we hope to trigger memories and ideas and to rekindle glimpses of happiness...and help us to fall in love with life all over again.
Al Cooper makes his home in Rockville, but can frequently be found presenting BE READY UTAH preparedness classes throughout Southern Utah. His radio program “Provident Living – Home & Country,” airs every Monday at 4 p.m. on Cedar City's KSUB (590) Talk Radio. He can be reached at acooper@utah.gov.

---