In the past 24 hours your pal has not been feeling so great. So this evening, I went out for a walk along the Quinnipiac River and then ventured into Fair Haven. I saw homes so dilapidated, schools in the same condition. Residential houses were not any different. That kept me wondering what the long term prospect looks like.
I saw a man in the park shooting drugs into his left arm. The healthcare worker in me wanted to approach and tell him this was terrible for him, but I had no idea how he could react given that he was in desperate condition to get his high. I was praying, so I offered some prayers his way. God can help the addicts. Nothing is impossible with Him.
As I walked along the sidewalks in Fair Haven, I realized that stores were tight with security glass separating the customer from the cashier. It is one of those areas where robbery and theft are high. Then I started going deep into thought about the truth of our humanity.
Before that, I had met a man walking who introduced himself by saying he walks a lot. He said he was 68 and his belly is going down from all the walks and exercise. He looked great for his age. I commended him and encouraged him to keep it up. He told me he has been in the area for over 25 years. He is retired and easily gets bored. I told him to find something small to do to keep himself occupied. He said he would, and before we parted ways, he made sure to tell me his wife walked out on him one day saying she did not love him anymore. I told him that was unfair and terrible to go through. I wished him well as I continued on to look for a bathroom in Dunkin Donuts. I thought about how much this many told me in just the few minutes we met. It was mind blowing at best. We are in an undeclared loneliness pandemic. This one doesn't sell vaccines so who cares?.
I got there at Dunkin but they would not allow me to use it, saying it was out of service. I know that location attracts a lot of unhoused people and they are seen as a nuisance to the business. At least that is where my thoughts landed. And I am not usually too far off. I went into the big grocery store, bought water and requested their restroom room. I will spare you the painful details of how I got to use it.
Then the allegory of the cave came back to me from years ago, and I decided I must write this down in line with today's walk.
In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, prisoners are chained in darkness, seeing only shadows cast on the wall. They mistake those shadows for reality because it is all they have ever known. Only when one is set free, dragged into the painful light, does he realize that what he thought was real was only an illusion. Sounds familiar today?
In 2025, humanity is in the cave again. The cave is not stone, cave, and darkness but glowing screens, endless feeds, and carefully engineered illusions to feed us 24/7. The shadows on the wall are not flickering firelight but headlines, algorithms, advertisements, and curated realities that mimic truth while concealing it. Many live and die never questioning the shadows, convinced that what they see is the whole of reality. Shall we start asking questions about how we were or are being educated? I wrote something earlier about education today. How about questioning the economy and our financial system? How about religion? How about the truth about our system of government? Is democracy real? Do our elected officials have the real power to manage the affairs of the state?
Yet there are those who feel the chains. Most people sense that something is off, that the world is not as it appears. For them, the painful journey upward is learning to question, to endure the discomfort of doubt, and to face truths that may burn their eyes. In the blinding light of the sun lies unfiltered reality: a fragile planet, economic systems cracking under strain, communities fractured by division, but also the undeniable beauty of human resilience, creativity, and the possibility of renewal.
As in Plato’s tale, those who glimpse the light and return often meet hostility. Many would rather cling to the shadows than endure the pain of transformation. The deeper danger is that technology, politics, and distraction work together to keep the chains tight, to keep the shadows dancing so vividly that the real world feels unnecessary, even threatening.
Humanity in 2025 stands at a threshold. Remain in the cave, entertained and deceived, or risk the difficult path toward truth. The choice is collective as much as it is personal. And the question remains: will enough people endure the journey out of the cave to guide others toward the light?
If there was something we could do for each other, that would be to lead each other out of the cave.
We must wake up.
Pal Ronnie
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