Funny. Scary! Cosmically
Coincidental? (Lord! Have Mercy!) I picked up a book at the library recently,
hoping to gain a measure of personal insight and inspiration, feeling some
short - though I’ve been blessed with much in the past - seeking a place
within the pages to rest my weary soul, far from the madding crowd. A short
‘retreat’ would have been most welcome, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be…
rather it gave me shivers - having been written during and making reference
to the last Gulf War…
I’m not autonomous, and well I know it! - Some times more
keenly than others. And I’m well certain that the recent turn of events
has already taken a vast toll in “collateral” casualties, not only in those
who are ‘forfeiting’ their lives, or losing them without choice, but as
well in those who have chosen to exercise their hearts, minds, and souls
through *exceedingly* painful realities and realizations. Welcome to The
Trip From Hell…Not only for the collective seemingly faceless groups and
nations who have spoken out to no apparent avail, but those living the
very consequences of Today’s new brutality, violence, shortsightedness,
and hidden agendas.
We wholly and dearly need those who can still seemingly
rise above it and see “The Big Picture” - that is, that the world has never
been different, yet Humanity has not only survived, but also thrived -
heart and soul. But we also wholly, dearly need those who can be first-hand
witnesses, and Keepers of Life Accounts in all its measures. If ever there
was a time to fully embrace the soulfully inherent notion that we are One,
this has to be it. It’s OUR lifetime. “OUR” world teeters on so many planes…
Speaking as someone who’s found many a light at the end
of some very long, dark tunnels - not always… but often - I know that ‘Giving
a Damn’ is as much hard work as it is a reward in and of itself. Life strengthens
me… and weakens me… and forges my soul into something I may not always
recognize or immediately appreciate. The book I spoke of earlier may not
have been what I necessarily wanted - but perhaps what I needed. The Universe
works in Mysterious Ways…and that is always a given. I am merely, humbly,
looking for clues, and if we were honest with our wee selves, unsanctimonious,
without hubris, we’d know this too…
~ All we have to decide
is what to do with the time that is given us. - Gandalf (from “The Lord
of the Rings” - Part One)
“On Remembrance Day,
the world pauses briefly to reflect on the savage costs of war and to ponder
ways to peace. Each of us, however inarticulate or humble, determines once
more that ‘they must not have died in vain’’. But even as we do so, we
are dismayed by inner fears that it is only a matter of time; that forces
far beyond our own puny control might once again sweep us all into an insane
abyss.
Nobody has magical answers or solutions. But I refuse
to believe that a thinking species that can probe outer space, split the
atom, perform surgery on an infant in the womb, or tinker with the very
coding of the basic stuff of human life itself cannot find a way to stop
slaughtering its own members in the collective madness of war.
What is needed at this hour, more urgently than ever before,
is a rededication, not to this or that religion (because we will never
get agreement to that in a million years) but to the sacredness of the
human person.”
- Excerpt from “God Help Us” - by Tom Harpur - copyright
1992 - McClelland & Stewart Inc.
