"And the Lord said let there be light.....and He saw that it was good." Yes, light is good. It clears the corners of the mind, of the psyche of a nation, as the light bares all to see, for the truth to emerge, for humanity to improve itself under clear conditions. People engage with each other in the light, it emboldens them to start new ventures, while the dark intimidates, creates new boundaries unseen in the light. So which have we chosen and where are we now?
Well, last night I watched a program that contained many folk songs and I loved singing along, though I must say that I have heard better presentations. But the spirit was there, so I sang. And then I pondered. I remembered the enthusiasm, the hope, the idealism, with which we sang those songs as teens and young adults. I remembered those hopes, the dreams we had, the light we thought we would bring to the world, to those whose thinking needed the sunlight, to be exposed for the ugliness and falsehood it embodied.
And it became dark. Oh, the screen of the computer shed light, there was another lamp on, and ambient light from other rooms, but the darkness was still there. And the numbers of darkness rolled by. 46 days. 145 mad tweets. 180,000+ dead. 450,000 predicted. Almost 15 million infected. Millions unemployed and even more millions hungry, cold, hopeless. So, as the words rang out to "The Times They are a Changin'," I wondered. Are they really? Or are we still in the same old, same old rut, that dangerous rut of life which is actually more welcoming of despair than life.
I recalled the song wherein a line went with the stream of hatred - one group of people hating another, who hated another, who hated another, unending, everlasting, the same issues of color, of religion. The same stupid issues which forget that underneath those differences, we are all the same, physically, and with the same need for the same basics of life, along with the trimmings of hope and a future for their kids, a better life for the next generation. So are we there yet?
No, we are not. In fact, I believe that we are further and farther away than ever. The hatred encouraged over the past four years has taken apart much of the machinery of a better world, created even deeper divides among people, stressing differences, even false ones, and no, the times, well, no, they are not changing at all, unless it is going down the wrong direction.
The darkness invading the thoughts grew even more as "Blowin' in the Wind" was sung. The same old damned questions. The same old damned weaknesses and wrong judgements of humanity. The same futile hopes and the same dashing of those hopes. The same issues that are never approached correctly, never to be solved, as we whirl around in the same eddy of hate, of war, of hopelessness, of denial.
how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
No matter how many times we try to answer that question, the only answer that comes to mind is that these cannonballs cease to fly when there are "better" substitutes for them, as the missiles fly, as the anti missile missiles fly and on it goes, war too often the preferred approach to problems.
The seeking dove cannot find peace, and the very earth crumbles into the sea. How predictive was that, as we now watch the cities and countries of the world become inundated by floodwaters of the encroaching and devouring seas and oceans. And yet, there are still the deniers, even as they wade through chest high waters.
Freedom, reality, light and hope, a better life, a freer life, a life of compassion, of equality, of security - all mentioned here. And of course, the eternal question - when will mankind ever see the truth, ever realize that one cannot hide from the truth. Adam could not hide from G-d, Cain could not hide his crime from his Lord, the people of the earth could not hide their sins and neither can we. The only difference is that our sins are multiplied by increasing technologies, allowing us to murder not one, but thousands, tens of thousands, millions, and we never stop. We continue to deny, to look away, to avoid the truth, to change the truth, distort it into what never was.
How long will humanity remain deaf and blind to the deaths? How much longer can this continue? How many roads, we are asked, must a man, a person, walk down, before he realizes the manhood, the humanity, of all people? It seems there is never an answer. The darkness increases with the last question.
how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
That answer is blowing in the wind
the answer is blowing in the wind
-as lost, as hard to grasp, as any of the others, for it, too, is blowin' in the wind, that fickle, everchanging strength and direction wind.
So let us sing those old songs, for they remain as relevant today as they were fifty and sixty years ago. But let us add a chorus, a new refrain, as we add in a true answer, a deliberate attempt to reach into that wind and grasp the answer, no more to be blowing in the winds of the world, of life itself.
We have that opportunity now. We have a long and hard road ahead of us. But we can do it, if we but put our collective minds and energies together, strive together, succeed together. Put hatred behind us, forget the divisive and acidic lies, and move on into a brighter and better world. a lighter world, where darkness has its place, but not in the extinguishing of the light of hope, of progress, of shared humanity.
Am I a hopeless dreamer? Perhaps. But dreamers move the world. Improve the world. Dare to ask not only why, but as RFK said, ask why not, why can we not make it better. We must. That answer is not blowing in the wind at all. It is stark reality.
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