RON DAVIS -- Through my eyes

I admit to having idiotic thoughts -- I’ve probably demonstrated that

many times during the last year in this very column.

Sometimes when I go to the beach, I have this ridiculous thought that a

wave crashing against our shore has mixed emotions. Ridiculous, huh?

Waves don’t have emotions.

But even knowing that, I imagine they’ve just made the long journey from

the far East, slowly, methodically and anxiously arrive at our shore,

only to kiss the sand for one brief moment, then turn around to make

another lengthy trip for another brief moment of euphoria.

While I know the new millennium doesn’t really begin until Jan. 1, 2001,

many people are inclined to treat the rollover from 1999 to 2000 as the

end of one, and the beginning of the next.

Regardless, the dawn of a new millennium has something in common with the

wave sliding onto our beach.

A thousand years will soon come to a close in one brief celebratory

moment, only to usher in Day One of 365,243 more days until that next

millennium wave of time washes gently against humanity’s calendar.

We have every right to recognize and celebrate this artificial, historic

milestone, even perhaps prematurely. Mankind has so far survived wars and

revolutions, bigotry and persecutions, and H-bombs and pollution.

Like that individual wave lapping momentarily on our beach, we too splash

only momentarily at this point in time, and then continue our human

journey toward the next millennium. And hopefully the next, and then the

next.

Those of us who observe this flip of the calendar will not be around for

the next millennium celebration. But our deeds will be, and so all of us

are participating in the preparation for their millennium party.

Just as small particles of water come together to form waves in a great

sea, so too do we, as individuals, form small waves we call communities

and larger waves we call nations, all of which form that great sea of

humanity.

Those who have come before us will not be here to personally celebrate

this moment, but their deeds are their legacy and our gifts --

accomplishments, good and bad, that molded and configured the state of

our own humanity as it exists as we fold into the future. For better or

worse, we are what we are, and we have what we have because of a

continuing partnership between those of the past and ourselves.

Our challenge, as we begin this voyage toward the next millennium, is to

see ourselves as part of the continuum of life and directly responsible

for what will or will not be celebrated 1,000 years from now.

During the next century, we will hand off a torch of achievements to

those who will continue in the race. As surely as parents shape their

children’s lifetime of values, we too will affect the future by the deeds

we leave behind.

We, individually and collectively, construct that torch.

Whether that torch will be twisted and contorted with bigotry and

prejudice, whether it will be an ocean polluted with humanity’s

convenient and thoughtless discards, or whether there will even be a

torch to light and enlighten future generations will be up to us.

Just as the ocean wave cannot exist without the individual drops of

water, the waves of humanity are built on the backs of individuals, each

of whom makes a difference in the nature of the wave.

I hope that 1,000 years from now, someone will watch the final surge of a

blue wave diving softly toward their shore and see a better shore,

partially constructed and preserved by us -- a better shore because we

understood our impact on the wave of the future.

* RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He can

be reached by e-mail at o7 ronscolumn@worldnet.att.netf7 .