Sky 2000 FTLComm - Tisdale January 8, 1999 It is an excellent plan to consider the years of this century ahead of us and how we, our children and their children will make use of these years to come. Yesterday's clouds with the high cirrus, mid level stratus and lower level cumulus got me thinking about how complex things are. We all want to see things work out and get better but there are so many choices and so many

conflicting elements that need us and divert our attention sometimes from the things that are really important. Perhaps immediacy is our greatest enemy and at the same time our greatest motivator. Those things pressing us right now tend to move us to action to handle the current situation but also move us into action when we procrastinate and try to select the proper course for effective action. The clouds that pass over head are created by the swirl of gases in the atmosphere as it is affected by warm water somewhere and compressed cold air masses somewhere else. There is no volition, no consideration for the life over which they pass. We in our busy little worlds deeply affect the lives of each other even by the smallest and often most apparent insignificant action and unlike clouds we care very much about what we do and how it affects others. There is such a need for each individual to be purposeful and aware that working together we can achieve remarkable things and working for our own needs may often be essential to others who are also striving for their own needs like us. It somes like clouds doesn't it, all affect one another and yet together the forces can be overwhelming. So often we become confuses about what is important, we lose sight of the big picture and find ourselves involved in details that if left alone would probably sort themselves out without intervention of any kind. We are complex beings yet like those clouds we are connected together, bound to each other in so many ways. Timothy W. Shire