Trying to Find The Words.

This week has been hard to put into words.  Whether the lunacy of politics in the US right now; the threat of yet another unnecessary war in the middle east or the senseless murder of a 17 year old by a vigilante in Florida, recent world events could truly overwhelm you if you wanted to let them.

Fortunately, there is another way , and a better truth through which to view our modern world of seeming violence and hatred and fear. We are truly at an amazing and wondrous point in world history.  Dictatorships are falling; peace is more prevalent now than nearly at any time in world history; a trend of awakening has begun-- exemplified by the quest by so many to find  answers to questions that have existed as long as man-kind has had the ability to wonder-- to doubt- to ask.

The media would not have you know this, as boring news shows don't do well in the ratings, but things are getting better.  The old ways will not go without a fight, however.  The people who profit from the old ways of thinking and of living, and who fear the change that progress inevitably brings, will cling to their hatreds and their bias and their fear as long as they possibly can. Just as they have in every age.  Just as they fought the earth being round-- just as they fought to keep slavery-- just as they fought to deny women and minorities suffrage-- just as they fought even token attempts to being rights to the Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Transgendered community.  But now, as then, they have to know-- to sense-- that their days are numbered. With a non-white president, with the increased connectivity of  all the worlds people through the Internet-- and the ability to share a radical or revolutionary idea such as freedom or liberty or love with millions in less than a second- the spread of something better cannot be slowed.

 That is why they are reacting the way they are.  On a small scale in a town North of Orlando; at less violent but less divisive  presidential campaign stop; in the town of Homs in Syria; and elsewhere on our round planet where people still try to take sides (credit to Dr Dyer). These people cling to their bankrupt ideas-- and sometimes resort to violence to silence or stop the progress of humans towards a more enlightened and better planet.  And along their way, in their struggle to hold onto what was-- and impart  their idea of the future they claim their victims.  Some indirectly: by supporting a culture of intolerance or fear contributing to the suicide of a student in NJ; or some far more directly-- a student in Florida; thousands in Syria; Egypt; Iran, China; and so many other places.  And that, at first, is a sad thing.  But it is not just a sad event or a tragedy. And it is not the end of their story-- of our story-- by any means. 

For if you hold that all things happen for a reason-- that all that happens in our physical world is an illusion-- and  that all hate springs from fear and darkness-- then we can rejoice in this steady journey of our planet towards enlightenment- towards the light of truth-- a truth that will push away the bigots and the despots and the simple minded people who only care about people just like them. We will know that the high cost paid to bring light to their fear will be justified, that the lives of thousands in Syria or one in Florida will not be lost in vain.  In time, we will wonder how our world was ever the way it is now-- but the paradox is that it can never be what it can be without this present day and the sacrifices of too many families and individuals. 

But in their memory, I think it is so very important to remind you and me and everyone that ours is a world of light and beauty and love.  Those are the rules-- the natural order-- not the exception.  Human progress has always- will always demand growth.  Though some may resist, though Limbaugh may moan or Assad cling-- they will not win out.  Those kinds of people never, ever have.  The only tragedy is that so many will not get to see their victory or maybe that they did not know they were already victorious.

But each day you love someone just because they too are a child of the divine; each day you bring peace into the world by your simple actions;  each day you live to your higher purpose; and any moment your bring light into darkness; and especially when we forgive  those still clinging to hate, fear, and power-- you call the world and all its inhabitants to a place beyond where it is now, better than where it is now.  And that progression will bring us all to a better more loving world as the light ebbs away the last remaining patches of darkeness.  For once and forever.