He’s winning.

Oh, sure. I wouldn’t expect the newsman to say so.

Why would they?

“Life is Getting Better” doesn’t sell,

not in the age of magnified blemishes and flaws.

Oh, sure. There’s plenty to cry on.

I read the headlines last week,

damn shame what happened down in Uvalde.

But, murder rates and crime ain’t what it was when I was a kid,

though the newsman won’t ever let you know.

Africa was not better, and neither was Europe, or Asia.

Does anyone really want to travel back to 1925 Belgium or Nigeria or Plano, Texas.

Do you want to give up a flushing toilets, two-day delivery, and video chats?

Oh, sure. We’ve got some big mountains to climb,

but I know we will see the top long before the doomsday prophecies come true.

Oh, sure. That too. ( To whatever ‘but what about this’ you got in mind. That too.)

Lemme finish with this: Anyone who says they’d rather live in a different era is daft.

The past wasn’t better than today, but it is a safe place, forever frozen in our minds.

It’s predictable and constant.

I choose to believe the best lay ahead of us, in that foggy future,

uncertain and to be determined.