Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ A Smaller World

A Smaller World

Many Authors, Dec 31, 2004
Commentary by Stephen Downes

With the dawn of 2005 I begin my tenth year publishing Stephen's Web and the fifth year I have been mailing copies of OLDaily to the world. In that time I've lived in three cities and travelled across Canada and around the world. It has been, for me, a decade of tremendous growth, and for all of us, I think, a decade in which the world grew smaller, more interconnected, more cohesive.

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The events of this past year and especially of this past week have shown us not only how fragile is our existence on this planet, but also how great is the power of our coming together. The nations impacted by the Tsunami are all part of what was once called the third world - but in my lifetime I have seen tremendous development in these regions, and I count among my readers people from every one of the impacted countries.

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I know it is trite to say this, but I think of all of you not only as readers but as friends and partners in the long march toward a better world. If you have been reading these pages for any length of time, you will know that this is the one, only and ultimate purpose of OLDaily and of my work in general. Education for all, and through education, a path toward each of us achieving all that we hope, all that we dream.

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I sometimes lose sight of this objective, even though it is on my front page for all to see. I sometimes worry more about hit counts and contests, credit and criticism. About myself and my place in the world, rather than what ought to be done, what is right, and good.

CRLFCRLF

Life is too short, too fragile and too precious for this. There is so much promise in the air, and yet so many of us fall to war and famine, natural disaster and disease. Those few people who have had the good fortune to be in a position to make things better have an obligation, a duty, to extend as much of themselves as they can to do so. The future of our civilization depends not on how high the greatest of us soar but on how far the weakest of us fall. We are together, all of us, one, or not at all.

CRLFCRLF

To all my friends around the world: Peace, and long life.

CRLF

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