Sometimes history is hard to recognize while you are living in it.
We (and all the news junkies among us) can't tear ourselves away from cable news lately. We watch masses of protesters abroad changing nation after nation with revolutions started with Facebook and Twitter. And we watch masses of protesters in our own ever-more polarized country as we squabble between reining in spending and the demands of entitlement and collective bargaining.
And it's hard to know if we should be rejoicing or worrying. Is the world getting better or worse? Is it getting safer or more dangerous? Is it getting more united or more divided? Is it getting more equal or more unequal?
Is it a blessing or a curse that we know what everyone else is doing—instantly—and all of it accompanied by a host of opposing opinions? Should we take pride or concern from the fact that mass communication and social networking is so instant that today one whole country can copy what another whole country did just yesterday?
Is it good or bad that every single legislator in one party can be for cuts in spending and union power and every single legislator of the other party can support the protesters demonstrating against it?
Should we be proud of the "spread of democracy" across the Middle East and the accompanying demise of dictators? Or should we be worrying ourselves silly about the stability of the quickly constituted governments and the possibility of Muslim extremists in power?
And if we want to worry on an even bigger scale, we can acknowledge that despite all the high sounding rhetoric about freedom and democracy, all revolutions are really about economics and become inevitable as the distance and the gap grows between the rich and the poor. If whole countries can be brought down in days, what about the whole world? If revolution can happen on a country-wide scale (people toppling their government because they are sick of being poorer and poorer while they watch their ruling class become richer and richer); can it also happen on a worldwide scale? With media and technology, the world's poor watch the gap between them and the world's rich (centering in and symbolized by America) growing wider every day. If they can bring down a country's order in days, why can't they do the same with the world order?
There are certainly more questions than answers. There is plenty of room to feel happy about the ever-forward march of freedom and transparency; and also plenty of room to feel concern and unrest about how volatile the world is and how vulnerable we all are.
Ironically, all the macro uncertainties often have a tendency to make us focus more on the micro certainties. What we do know, and sometimes it seems like the only thing we can be certain of, is that our families are our highest priorities and the one thing that we can do something about, day in and day out.
And in protecting and taking care of each other within our families, we just might be doing the most significant thing there is to protect and save this big and complicated and divided world.
New York Times No. 1 Bestselling Authors Richard and Linda Eyre are the parents of nine children and, by coincidence, the authors of nine internationally distributed parenting and life-balance books. They lecture throughout the world on family-related topics. Their new book is "5 Spiritual Solutions for Everyday Parenting Challenges," now available in bookstores and online at deseretbook.com and amazon.com. Visit the Eyres anytime at www.TheEyres.com or www.joyschools.com and read their blog at www.deseretnews.com/blog/81/A-World-of-Good.html.