December 30, 2018: Best Years Ahead: There Will Be Tears; Worst: There Will Be Blood
Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! Martin Luther King Jr. (a transcription from the audio of his I Have a Dream speech on August 28, 1963)
Tear (tir) and tear (ter) are spelled the same, but have two different pronunciations and two different meanings though they involve similar feelings. Hoo-nōs
It seems clear that sooner or later an apocalypse is coming. However, the kind of apocalypse is not clear, though it is likely to involve either the shedding of blood or the shedding of tears.
Obviously a shedding of blood will involve both kinds of tears, but the shedding of tears does not require blood, only a transcendent realization—a kind of tear in the fabric of our present existence not involving a blood bath.
We have done so well at so much, but seem so dogged (no offense to dogs) by fears. Those fears are not solved by the decimation of others or our planet. It is pure folly to suppose otherwise. Whatever the political, economic, or religious system, we cannot hide from the folly of our fear, much less the obvious outcome of it. If we choose to double-down on our fear and continue to create a social contract that insists differences between people are a more important rubric than similarities within people, we will have an apocalypse of blood.
We’ve let our fears overcome us at times—many times—and blood almost always follows. Of course there are realistic fears and we do need to pay attention, but we cannot continue to confuse realistic fears with neurotic fears. We cannot continue to allow our common humanity and our sense of stewardship to arise only in disasters. A blood-bath apocalypse will be a disaster, though for some it is the shedding of blood that will reset humanity and put it on the right track. However, it is not “open-border” thinking to allow our commonalties to trump our fears. Blood-letting and isolationist-thinking are not a path of healing and transcendence.
If we realize the folly of blood-letting and isolation; if we realize the Great Mistake of our social contract, despite the attempt at true democracy; if we realize the Great Mistake of domination instead of stewardship, there will still be an apocalypse, but it will be a wave of tears across the landscape of humanity as we realize our folly. Such a wail will be agonizing for sure, as any tear in the fabric of creation would be. Yet there would be a cleansing within humanity, not a cleansing of humanity. It is the former sort of cleansing that will bring the strength, courage, and humility necessary to fulfill the promise of democracy.
For the New Year—2019—and all the years ahead, let’s go with the strength, courage, and humility of us. Let the blood stay within and let the tears flow freely. That would be a mercy and a grace granted to ourselves by ourselves. Can you hear God’s sigh and see God’s smile and feel God’s presence at our arrival?
May this New Year and all the ones that follow bring an abundance of the positive attributes of us that allows free-breathing to us all—and I do mean all!
Happy New Year(s)!
- By Travis Gibbs
- on Dec, 30, 2018
- eThoughts
- No Comments.
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