Matt. 7 -- a man of the future

During the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, garrison troops stationed in remote frontier posts considered pillage a part of their pay. After a battle, the soldiers would walk through the defeated village, helping themselves to whatever struck their fancy.[1] On one such occasion Kemal Ataturk, the father of the modern Turkish Republic, asked a friend, "Do you want to be a man of the future? Or a man of the past?"

Are you content with things the way they are? A feature built into the best network devices is -- I'm serious -- graceful degradation. When the component starts to fail, it does so in a tidy, orderly, fashion, so that the surrounding components can "take up the slack." Are you content with the graceful degradation of the world around you? Or do you aspire to a better future? Let's revisit the words of Isa here:

Mat 7:24 "İşte bu sözlerimi duyup uygulayan herkes, evini kaya üzerine kuran akıllı adama benzer.
Mat 7:25 Yağmur yağar, seller basar, yeller eser, eve saldırır; ama ev yıkılmaz. Çünkü kaya üzerine kurulmuştur.
Mat 7:26 Bu sözlerimi duyup da uygulamayan herkes, evini kum üzerine kuran budala adama benzer.
Mat 7:27 Yağmur yağar, seller basar, yeller eser, evi sarsar. Ev yıkılır; yıkılışı da korkunç olur."

Those who hear and heed, endure. Those who give in to the temptations of the moment, come to regret it.

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[1] to "strike one's fancy" is, I fear, an obsolete idiom, a "bookish" turn of phrase.