We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil
[freemium]When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze
When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse
When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
It’s difficult these days. To think about the future and not feel sad.
I think that’s why I left. To drift, full of intent, through time and space.
If there is a brave and startling truth to be found, it is here. As an observer. Of our tiny rock, spinning through a vast, dark universe, as I see it. Thinking of how our civilization has grown, how human beings have evolved to the present day. If we’ve come this far, there’s got to be a future that’s bigger, braver, bolder, better and brighter.
I’m trying to think of how sure Maya Angelou was of this truth as she wrote it down.
And then there’s a man called Musk. He says, “If you get up in the morning, and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.”
May be, we can find it. We’ve got to innovate. Technological improvements are inevitable. Exiting the fossil fuel era is inevitable. To believe in the possibilities so that we can determine the probabilities. We’ve got to fail. And we’ve got to be peaceful about it all.
If people and peace are our truest wonders – the proctors of parity; the propellers of progress; the protectors of the planet – then peaceful people should be our only purpose. The eventual truth. And while it will be brave. Hopefully, it won’t startle. It’ll be a new normal.
[/freemium]
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