Learn something from Rip Van Winkle

Am sure you have heard about that little story of the peen of Washington Irving entitled Rip Van Winkle.

The one thing that we usually remember about the story is that Rip Van Winkle slept for 20 years.

But there is something about that little story that we usually overlook. We were told from the story that Rip Van went up to the mountain for a long sleep.

When Rip Van went up to the mountain, the sign posted of the leader of the nation then was King George III of England. When he came down twenty years later, the sign had a picture of George washington, the first president of united states.

Rip Van went to look at the picture of George Washintong, and in looking at the picture he was amazed.

He was completely lost. He knew not who he was.

This reveals to us that the most stricken thing about the story of Rip Van is not merely that he slept 20 years. But rather he slept through a revolution.

As he was peacefully snoring up in the mountain, a revolution was taking place that at a point will change the course of history.

And Rip Van knew nothing about this, he was asleep. Yes he slept through a revolution.

One of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living through a great period of social change and yet they fail to develop a new attitude and the new mental responses that the new situation demands. So they end up sleeping through a revolution.

There is no doubt of the fact that a great revolution is taken place in the world today.

In our case, it is a triple revolution. It started first as a challenge, then as crises and now as a pandemic. Yes, we do live in a period where changes are taking place.