“Teach Your Children”
Saturday February 21, 2026 by Christopher Jordan

In the natural progression of Life, our children will succeed us. Which World will they inhabit, ours or theirs? Who decides? As good parents, we do everything possible to insure that our children’s lives are safe and nurturing. We create environments in which they can thrive. We encourage them to be their best at who ever and how ever they wish to be. As we strive to accomplish this, how much do we include our vision for their future?

In a 2023 publication by historian, economist and demographer Neil Howe, he speaks of the progression of our World occurring linearly associated with various superimposing cycles, some of which are overlapping. I am on my second reading of this hefty book of nearly five-hundred pages of text, and it occurred to me that History does not exactly repeat itself, but does leave some clues to help us navigate our future. And, at some point, it won’t be my future any more, but the future of someone else.

My parent’s World gradually became my World and will eventually be my children’s World, and on and on it will go. What part of my parent’s World remained of my World? How much of their’s will continue in the Worlds of the future? How is that determined? Who gets to decide?

When we struggle to maintain a society that can continue to endure, do we remember the struggle of our Forefathers to create it? Do our children get to continue the struggle? Is that our legacy? Will any generation benefit from the previous generation’s guidance, or is this just another pattern? A cycle of building and collapse.

I think, and I’ve noticed others do as well, that Life is learning from the past, existing fully aware in the present and preparing for the future. We better serve our children by expending our energy imparting this wisdom. By giving them the skills to evaluate history as it occurred from various perspectives, they can learn. By helping them develop tools of communication and expression, comfort in discussion and debate, they can live peacefully in the present. By teaching them to prepare for possible contingencies by enhancing their adaptive skills, we can insure their ability to navigate their future.

Our future should not reinforce our egos or hubris. Time will not stop to celebrate us in perpetuity. It is understandable that throughout our lives we have developed our own insights that we feel would be beneficial for those who follow. No need for them to have to reinvent the wheel. We can point out to them the snares and pitfalls. Yet, despite our earnest wishes to continually protect our loved ones, time flows. Our lives have a beginning and an ending.

History tells us, Life goes on. Our children’s lives will go on, hopefully beyond us. You can trust they will do well if you teach them to do well. Not what, but how.