On Trend

It seems I ignore trends at my peril.
I have been touched only slightly by what appears to be happening.  I heard someone say on the weekend we live in the best country in the world.  I sorta agree with that statement particularly when I see what is happening.
There is no doubt in my mind that I am seeing more because more have access to camera’s and immediate upload.  But this is where the trends come in to me.  It does not seem to me I am only seeing more because there is greater immediate access but because there is more happening.
Disasters and difficulties have always happened, but the trend would seem to suggest it is happening more often.  I am not one to wish doom and gloom on anyone but the trend  seems to suggest it is happening more and more.
I honestly do not think the ones who faced the great depression expected the stock market to crash but it did.  The Ukranians did not expect war. but it happened.
What got me thinking along these lines was the rickety foundation of hope.  I have seen a share of difficulties in this land (flood, fires, economic woes, the crime rate), yet while devastating to participants, on the whole it seems this place does not experience as much of the difficulties being experienced worldwide. (the earthquake in Myanmar looks to have been a doozy)
Yet the cost of living, crime rate, the attitude of some to suffering is to me a downward trend.  While I may not have experienced the worst of what is going on I call it a “creeping malady” being experienced worldwide and here.  Bad things have always happened but at the moment many bad things happening all at once.
Unfortunately the trend appears to be downward.  Ernest Hemmingway wrote about a guy going bankrupt who was asked how it happened.  His response was “gradually then suddenly.”  That to me is the trend I am seeing at the moment.  Unless there is some sort of intervention gradually will become suddenly.
All that was to say what I had in mind to say when I started writing this.  It was all about the foundation of hope.  We live at a height that makes us think we are immune to flooding.  We have enough to maintain a decent lifestyle.  We are getting rid of a big tree in our yard that caused us more stress than anything else during Alfred.
Yet I know one unforeseen event can undo security.  I reckon it matters big time that my security lies in something beyond the temporal.  I am seeing all around the world the temporal change in an instant.