Beware

  The fact of appearances can tell many things, sometimes even essential things, but there has always been exceptions because there are many who travel wide and far, and experienced much, who have stories to tell that amaze and mystify, and works that awe.  The tragedy of the exceptional, I discovered in the recent year, is that the excuses lay bare the ugliness of human nature when it is turned to or cloaked in darkness.  The mob mentality was outlined in the tragic novel Lord of the Flies, in which children turned against one another and then towards the apparently weakness, the creative sort, the type who could lead them to freedom.  There was a glee in what the doomed child, if he could perceive it, would have seen as a terrible smog, a smittenness in the other children's own being tempted darkly into the dark methods and ways, the very meanness which in good society we try to avoid.  That glee was not only in committing some deep wrong, but in getting away with any responsibility, getting away with a smirk remark intended to insult and offend, getting away with signaling and setting off chains of events that could only end badly for the one then too gleefully deemed doomed.  Usually there is hardly any glee in apathy and indifference, but even that carries a certain perverted accomplishment of at least having had beat the other in the cruel race that symbolizes harmlessly the cruel world their perception makes.  

In moments like these, I reflect on the myriad experiences that made my life full.  Those secrets I hide away for when dark times come and I need a candy to prove the world is sweet, that being is light, that life is good.  In moments like these, I try not to forget those who bravely and courageously take a stand, even for just a little while, and those who maintain my right in my absence, and try to do the same so others too will have a moment of happiness to store away.  

There may be stirring feelings in harming others while imagining oneself to be some victim of some faceless cruel world, but when those are the only feelings that get you through the day, you should know corruption around you has occurred.  No wrong is committed without the conscience speaking up and that is the consciousness of a normal functional being.  Right is where good is done and the conscience is free so that consciousness and being themselves are free, so in doing good one is free and in doing right truth is won.

Whenever I think of the novel, I wonder at my sadness upon reading it.  A group of children killing themselves and targeting the one who could only lead them to freedom.  Then I chance upon reflection and in reflection I realize what great courage and masterfulness it was for Golding to speak up about the very condition of the world.  Yet, my inquiry continues and this I cannot answer: whereupon one understands the deeper meaning of the world as an expression of good, as one beheld by God in Heaven as the fruit for humankind in its individuals, why then readers are unable to appreciate that their understanding of the bad does not prevent themselves from thoughtful contemplation to effect the fullness of their being?  That in noticing what is wrong is the beginning to find the path of doing what is right, still that glee robs the being of its freedom and truth, in tempting one to be passive and inactive, or worse, in realizing one's own unbecoming actions?

So it is, now the country is on a perimeter in time as well as circumstances, and as well myself undergoing wrong after wrong, still the world it holds and the world before me continue on their humdrum glee that robs these people who effect wrongs plain to sight, for fear that in not grasping the glee they shall be robbed themselves of those naughty moments when one could commit a crime or a misdemeanor or worse, when in reality that glee has robbed them of the goodness they could be.  The goodness of what inheres is the only compass one could ever find in the world at large which could be beheld with absolute certainty, the only wealth ever known, as was taught by the Lord, the only wealth and possession which has no shade of uncertainty.  When the world outside is proved to be that which one in holism can perceive, perception itself gives itself away unless it is active and in activity realizes the self.  Yet even then uncertainty shadows what is deemed to be external, while what is known to be one's own, one's own being, one's goodness, one's perceptions, one's actions - those are brought to the realm of knowledge direct to oneself only.  So I ask now, question oneself before giving into the glee that leads to darkness.

Wherein Is Found

 In any case something happens when you least expect it because the way to happiness is no straight line.  Moving from one point to another there is no sense in reveling forever perpetually in the straightness of the line and the shortness of the time unless there were the focus or if a mathematical universe were being contemplated.  The times between one act and an outcome are very much nevertheless, because unknowable are all the universes infinitesimally placed within alongside the one one did travel through.  That is, the reality one knows by having just experienced it excludes to a much extent all the other realities possible.

The thought of being together, which brings happiness to some and many, is along this principle as well.  In the moments that were shared are commonalities and too differences that draw happiness when the disposition is just so to receive happiness.  Unexpectedly such a moment of agreement and just a minute of disagreement has brought us to a point of coincidence, that instance of coinciding.  We do not draw from one another in some inexplicably greedy way, but draw from being individuals coinciding in a dimension just drawn out and then recognizing that we are at a place together that moves us to a general contentment.

Still without the consideration that happiness is like a quality to a state of mind, or one common to many states of mind, that happiness may prove elusive to consciousness.  We are happy now and unhappy then, but from one moment to another moment our being has drawn from already changed circumstances, at least somewhat.  How such circumstances, then becoming a momentary world, has transformed so much has changed that situates our being.  Yet, to notice and to note each minute of change just requires yet more than our everyday could muster; if true, then without believing in happiness, there is little chance of its recognition in the day to day.

Suppose there is a thing one desires, it is beheld then now, then later, but already in the beholding one has had it in one's holding.  It being unknown desire reaches out and overreaches and never arrives and happiness has eluded oneself.  Having had held it now and then again and again being known desire has been sated and chances have appeared again and again to recognize one is happy.  So it is.

Towards Building Why

 Going to the Moon is very important for the future of humanity.  The promise of peace as the natural state of being beckons where beyond the earth where our lineages have had such a long record of development.  What had been difficult centuries and millennia before were overcome in many ways so that peace is possible.  Peace is not only the beginning but the goal.  To be together without lamely thinking ourselves as like unthinking beings out for gains lasting a moment or two - we are beings that dream and plan and work in cooperation to realize the worthwhile realities.  The idea that the moon is a new beginning is the idea that we can start anew.  It is the new frontier in the sense that the Americas has been the new world.  The land of opportunity and dreams, the society of peace and order.  

The sight of the bright white moon in its phase strikes me with a profound sense of contentment and reassurance.  The presence of the first and immediate celestial body.  A place we haven’t been, a place we will soon go.  Everything is possible.  The way there will be made.  That this one here is possible makes the rest across the incomprehensibility in vastness also there and teeming with the possibility of real existence.  To make this first step, the importance cannot be overstated.  Just as venturing from the stasis of tradition to a realm of pure potential was the foundation in human action that allow the dream of the ideals and values defining societies today in the Americas.  What is freedom?  What is hard work?  What is making?  The move to the moon will not be merely a duplication of circumstances and choices.  Just the same, the endeavors into space will bring those to new heights of human experience.  What these realities could be we will never discover should we not venture beyond this home of a vibrant and lush garden. 

Carl Sagan wrote that we are upon the cosmic shore gazing into the deep oceans of space.  The grand stage of unknown proportions from these sittings of such modest proportion.  The amphitheater the presents an infinite count of drama depicting all that could be possible beyond the reach of any or all of our imagination.  What presence, what meaning could be discovered and made that I am this one, here, this small subjectivity, that exists within what is all and could contemplate my own existence within all that is and changes.  From the moon is a new vantage offering a view into what surrounds us everyday and every moment, which yet eludes us as we travel through the wonderful devices of our own making, under the firmament of the blue sky.

To Inscribe Some Order

 Of new world orders, a few words could be said.  There are new orders - small scale and principled ones, spanning extensive ones with great social benefits at small scales, emergent ones from the multitude of existents, corrupt ones with barely even anarchic principles, accidental ones, incidental ones, short lasting ones, long established ones with new notions, and so on.  Sometimes the question is raised, does this country require a new order, with the implication that a country is a single world to be ordered.  Of course, the ascription of "world" to a country is an order in itself.  Though simplistic in its utterance, the further possibilities are ones we have accustomed ourselves into expectations.  Where this country is not a world that confers benefits onto each of us, somehow the order is seen to have failed somehow.  In fact, the order is not complete, nor should we desire it to be a complete order, for then the worlds within would be irreversibly subsumed under it, and we would have a governance that is rigid and restrictive, directly against our long held notions and beliefs in freedom and democracy.

Then why does the phrase "new world order" resound, sometimes even in our hearts?  This for we long for some completeness and holism to the worlds we reside within.  We should first admit to the fact that each of us live in multiple worlds, and the world of the nation is in fact one of them.  What can be expected from the world of the nation was once seen as necessarily reciprocal.  There was a poster we have all seen that says, with a wonderfully stern caricature of a character, Sam, that says "Uncle Sam wants you."  Regardless of the graphic design quality, admittedly quite compelling, what made it compelling was less the graphical element than the general sentiment that the country and its government serve you for each of us does our part to contribute to society, governance, and each other's good.  While such a sentiment appears mysterious to some, those folks have not the ability to recall such was the foundational reality that generated the politics and the constitutional goods making up the nation.  There is no particular outcome from simply blaming the many forms of entertainment or pointing fingers at the usual suspects, although such provide grounds for reflection, so we must find the strength in us to examine what is actually needed to improve our quality of life in each our own lives but also in our communities, and indeed, each of the worlds we inhabit.

The world is not already made.  It is always in the making, thus begging the question of what is it to make?  It is one thing to have a blank canvas, ie. poverty, and begin to desire after material goods that other people or neighbors have, though it must be said that certain basic necessities are always required and so should be a right in this country.  All kinds of folks do great work in rerouting their communities' logistics to enable others less fortunate to have what they need not only to survive but to prosper as well, for the human potential is truly great when our basic needs have been met.  This is an example of an order that have been inscribed onto the world by these folks.  But if there is no urgent matter pressing, and our world is not out of order, yet there is news from beyond our smaller worlds of what is in fact pressing, to say, our environment or the possibility of conflict, how ought one proceed?  Or if there were urgent matter, such as unrest in a community or pressures coming from beyond one's immediate world encroaching, then what is there to be done?  Uncle Sam has sent no word.

The fact of the matter is that as we get caught up with the busi-ness of the job and family, of caring after the lawn and making meals, of catching favorite shows and walking the dog, one has not yet caught up with the business that should be one's own.  Such business I propose includes the working of affairs near and far, by means personal as well as remote.  Each person has his or her own vision of the good world and the good life, and each person has a sense of ethical being - these are all actual assets one holds in holding.  Today is a good day to advance upon one's greatest assets, the intuition and power of thought, as well as the ways of contact through social circles as well as established groups, clubs, and offices.  These are all true and legitimate means with which one can advance the small orders that through the making in the multiple, eventually finds and emerges in those collective sentiment and vision our predecessors possess.  We need not war to draw us together, for war is an antiquated form of order.  Even if it is created through centuries of trial and error, such is not the best expression of what is in the depths of us that draw us forward.  It is strength to resist and resolve and reconcile, but if there is even a slight chance of possibility, does it not become more probable through repetition and experiment, through collected effort, through it as an endeavor, and so the advancement of what is good in us?  

We must not cower in sight of the unusual and the unacceptable.  We must stand tall.  In the recollection of the hard times that produced the World Expo's, the Motorama's, the monumental architecture, the Woodstock, the computer technologies, the rallies for peace - we look now at those records in film and video and fantasize those times were easy when in fact they were hard.  More knowledge is at hand than ever before, more means for communication, and so more possibility to act.  We must not cower in face of the multiplicity of possibility but rather celebrate the possibilities and own them as our own, and find the strength to bring up what seems unspeakable in hard times, that is, the good and awesome and wonderful still lay there for us to grasp.

We are no small people, we are no weak folk.  Year by year we enjoy the fruits of our predecessors, the fruits of their hard labor.  We will not fall so we will make too orders, materials things, principled goods, and more for our next generations and their next generations.  If it is to mean that we have to rework a few things by taking the time to think, to contemplate, to imagine, to talk, to advertise - then those are the things we must do.  We must not be that village idiot in the folktale who was so lazy that when his mother went away, he could not muster the will to eat the bread laid out by the bedside table for a few days.  The means are at hand, they are in your mind.  We must act ourselves and in acting together enact the strength of the nation.  No change could take from us our strength and will to be, so in being we must express through whatever avenues and channels open the reality we forge slowly and carefully and willfully with the sweat and blood of our most deepest being.  Our minds are our great asset, and so are our hands - there is no end to this story for it shall go on and on, forever and ever.

Let us wake to the reality of each ourselves.  There is great strength of this people.  We will put our mind and hands in service of our next generations, and along the way, we will enact the strength of Nation.