Have you ever been lost for words? Here’s one I’ve been pondering: imagine. (I think John Lennon really had something going on when he wrote the lyrics to a song of that name that has become an iconic summation of all things possible – that are good and not so good). I have been struggling with how to process all of the events of the past few months.
Consider this 30-day time period:
May 1: Osama bin Laden is killed by U.S. Special Forces team: End of days/beginning of days?
May 6: Devastation in Alabama and several other southern states by the forces of nature: End of days/beginning of days?
May 15: Daniel Straus-Khan (so called very powerful world financial leader), is arrested on charges of sexual assault (on an African immigrant hotel maid): End of days/beginning of days?
May 17: Arnold Swarznegger (until recently governor of California) admits to having had an affair with the family maid and fathering her son: End of days/beginning of days?
May 21: Contrary to a prediction, the world (as we know it) did not end: End of days/beginning of days?
May 22: President Barack Obama is greeted by the entire Irish village (population 296) of Moneygall, from where his maternal great-grandfather originated: End of days/beginning of days?
May 22: The deadliest tornado (in the history of tornadoes) hit Joplin, Mo., leaving 116 dead – and still counting: End of days/beginning of days?
I woke up this morning with all this on my mind and it has stayed on: the end of days: the end of repressive political regimes; the end of sexual/gender exploitation; the end of racism, the end of man’s inhumanity to man.
The beginning of days: the beginning of world peace; the beginning of economic parity; the beginning of global, universal humanism; new plants to sustain the earth; new buildings to better withstand the winds.
Am I dreaming?
There is nothing new, really, but it seems that, all of a sudden, there are many more opportunities for us to get it (back) together.
All of us who dwell on this earth are face to face with the end of days/beginning of days options, which, when taken together, shaken and pushed down, may just give us another turn at this life here.
Here are the Chinese, pushing to be number 1 (in what?); the Europeans uniting under an economic standard; the Africans beginning to understand their wealth of natural resources (and how to leverage that power on the world stage); the “Latinos” unifying under a common Language; and the U.S. still leading in our demonstration of unity after natural disasters and/or invasion by “aliens.”
The world continues to cheer on the Arab Spring blowing a fresh wind through centuries of repression.
Am I still dreaming?
Are all these things happening all of a sudden?
Guidelines have been in existence for millennia; guidelines on how to live; “holy writ,” e.g. , cave drawings; preserved folkways; institutionalized rituals; published pantheons of gods; the Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism; Confucian sayings; the Hebrew Bible; the Christian bible; the Qu’ran; etc.
Great thinkers and philosophers too numerous to mention have tried to tell us and are still trying to help us understand that there is a better way for mankind, if not just one way.
My dad, for instance, always said, “No one is getting out of this life alive.” Therefore…..
But I must be dreaming to continue to hope that one day, soon, we’ll all “get it.”
But, then, again, I can imagine that, as Lennon sang, “the world will live as one.”
Antonia Williams-Gary is a consultant with Miami-based Savings and Grace Enterprise. She may be reached at toniwg@bellsouth.net.
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