I Long For A Better World

[Michael]

I write this for every human being who would humble me by reading it.

I realize that is a fraction of a fraction of all humanity, but it may be, if I’m graced, humanity just the same.

I wonder why I write so much about injustice. I wonder why I’m so passionate when it would be so much easier to be oblivious.

It dawned on me.

I long for a better world.

As, if I remember correctly, my birth certificate has no expiration date on it, I felt as if I should share my longings in a timely manner with as many people as would be so kind as to share them with me.

For example, I long for a day when those who possess more than most of us could ever dream of will begin to share their riches with those who struggle and can only dream of possessing the basic necessities of life.

I long for a day when people accept spirituality in one of two ways.

I long for a day when those who don’t believe in spirits at all realize that this is the only life and the only world they will ever know and that they must use that life to make this world a much better place than they found it.

I long for a day when people of faith, people who believe in a spiritual world, people who believe in a higher power, a Creator, cease to believe in the creator of the books, cease to believe in a vengeful creator, a jealous creator, a murderous creator, a creator who commands its very own creations to set upon one another in death and destruction, especially upon its own behalf.

I long for a day when people who believe in a Creator believe in a Creator whose intent was for its creations to exist without war and destruction, from beginning to end.

I long for a day when such beliefs birth tolerance;

tolerance among those whose skin pigmentation produces hues of appearance which significantly differ from one person to another.

tolerance among those whose language and culture of ethnicity differ dramatically.

tolerance between genders so that each gender looks upon the opposite with total respect and equality.

tolerance towards those who love, cherish and honor another human being to the point where the two human beings wish to spend their lives together and share those lives, no matter the race, ethnicity or gender of either of the two.

I long for a day when all people everywhere realize that earth is finite.

I long for a day when all people everywhere appreciate the gifts that earth has given us.

I long for a day when all people everywhere realize that the entity earth has needs as well.

I long for a day when all people everywhere give back to the earth by, if in no other way, realizing that earth is finite and belongs to every creature which travels upon it.

I long for a day when people realize that life is a process.

For all of recorded time, humanity has had its eye on the goal, the finish line, the prize. It has either not realized nor cared about the process used to reach its goal.

Subsequently, the process has been trampled upon and flawed and filled with destruction.

Consequently, when the goal was reached, it was not sustained.

Throughout recorded history, there have been communities that have lasted for many years, but, by far, the greatest number of communities of note have failed. The great communities of note are no longer with us. They all ultimately failed.

I long for a day when humanity keeps its eye on the process and that process contains everything for which I long.

If humanity is more attentive to the process which contains everything for which I long, it will reach a goal and that goal will be called Peace.

Peace is giving and accepting.

I doubt I will see Peace in my life time, but maybe, just maybe if we all long for it with the intensity needed and we are acutely attentive to the process, a generation someday in the future may experience world wide Peace for the first time in history.

That goal will be sustainable.

That goal will never fail.

[judih]

live words
living strength
may we all have DNA that lives to see these longings come true

[Jenni Mansfield Peal]

People confuse peace with heaven. They look around them, see it isn't heaven and despair.

War is easy, peace is hard. War allows individuals to rise in status quickly through chaos and aggressiveness. Others may comfortably align themselves with their tribe. Survival and retribution become the only goals; dissenting or divergent voices are easily and quickly silenced. Peace presents the sticky problems of human rights and human need that seem unsolvable, like education, civil justice, equitable economies and medical support. A battle can be won in a few days - it takes much longer to build a school or a hospital or a municipal water supply. War stirs the heart to heroic sentimentality; peace often appears with the charm of a urinal.

Peace, like war, can appear in small places - even within a larger context of the opposite. It is a common human error to mistake the problems of peace for some kind of spiritual war.

I believe that everything in our universe is subject to the principles of development and I believe that our human developmental destiny is love and peace.

I once tried to imagine peace and I couldn't. But even my small imagination is subject to development.
JMP