Brian Pomicter

Anyone who has watched cowboy movies set in the old American West is familiar with the “Wanted—Dead or Alive” poster, showing the outlaw’s picture and a healthy bounty for his capture—or for his killing. The awful crime could have been anything from robbery to murder. The poster conveyed the notion that the criminal was such a confirmed threat to decency and safety of society that his removal by any means was warranted.

If you think the world has gone crazy or off the deep end, you are not alone. In their book, Future Shock, Alvin and Heidi Toffler described the effect of rapid change on the human psyche. Toffler proposed that an accelerated rate of technological and social change leaves people disconnected, stressed, and disoriented. But, is that the whole reason?

To be sure, many of us may not readily embrace new technologies easily, since we prefer the familiar. But, as it is said, “necessity is the mother of invention”—so people do adapt.

We grow accustomed to our surroundings, like the proverbial frog in the pot of water—where the temperature is gradually increased until the unwitting creature boils alive. We tend to become hardened in outlook as we see before us a continual stream of expediency and wrong. These days, it can be difficult to keep a tender, sensitive heart.

We grow accustomed to our surroundings, like the proverbial frog in the pot of water—where the temperature is gradually increased until the unwitting creature boils alive. We tend to become hardened in outlook as we see before us a continual stream of expediency and wrong. These days, it can be difficult to keep a tender, sensitive heart.

In civil engineering, a canal is an artificial waterway constructed for navigation, irrigation, waterpower, and other purposes. We build canals to purposely direct the flow of water to a prearranged destination.

Left undirected, water can be a force of tremendous destruction—and yet, it is also a precious and easily wasted resource. But water is not the only resource that needs to be directed. Young people need guidance in order to live meaningful and fulfilling lives. Their potential, too, can be wasted or left undirected. This leads to their own hurt, as well as that of others.