My World Is Just Too Small

   The other day when I wrote about a book I was into at the time, a friend mentioned another series, the first book of which was The Land Breakers by John Ehle, that she felt I should read.

   So I got it on my Kindle, and now I am reading.

   As I looked at the chapter heading where I stopped reading yesterday, I noticed it was a specific date, 1781. That was it, just the date.

   When I think of that date, I think Revolutionary War, and there my knowledge of the time stops.

   Isn't that the way it is? From a historical perspective that is all I get, just that struggle of the colonies to be free from British control.

   But does that define the year for people in America? All the people?

   That particular war was fought almost exclusively within a limited number of miles from the Atlantic Ocean, but there were other folks who lived out of that narrow zone.

   This particular book, at least as far as I have read, deals with a few families who are trying to tame the wilderness in what is now western North Carolina. Their existence is lived out in just trying to survive, to keep their families safe, and to give their children a chance at a future in a challenging land.

   What was the probability that those living in Philadelphia in 1781 were even aware of those on the frontier, much less caring what their lives were going through? Unless they had family out there on the edge, probably not much.

  How about me in 2016?

   Our access to information and events is unprecedented, and that is good, but do I even understand, or try to get a handle on, what others not in my circumstances are thinking or doing or putting up with?

   My world is just too small.

   My geophysical world and my personal world.

   God help me to see the world, not only through my own personal lens, but to at least try to understand how others see it.

   And to care.