Darkest Before the Dawn

“Who comes up with these saying? Darkest before the Dawn. You ever attempt to analyze any of these “sayings?” It never rains but pours, a picture is worth a thousand words, the grass is always greener. They are such nebulous terms, and yet we understand the inference they are attempting to make. I wonder is that possible for other things? Urban legends, rural generosity, melting pots, that kind of thing. Is there someone who sits around making these observances into universally accepted allegories?”

When he gets like this I pretend I can’t hear him. I find something to throw myself into, so I at least appear to have a reason to not become engaged in his metaphysical ramblings.

I understand where he’s going, but then somethings should be left alone if your intention is to simply subvert the nature of the intent.

I have noticed lately that everyone is looking for what is wrong, not what is right. It has become a game. 

We seem to be locked into controversies that are generated by lack of knowledge on a subject that has been emotionally electrified with fear of imagined actions, and reactions to situations that in many cases do not exist.

We have begun to scrutinize everything. Make everything more relevant than it actually is. If something can cause confusion, skepticism, then it is pushed as though it were the cause or the cure for whatever it is that ails us.

We need to take a breath and remember that most things aren’t complicated unless we wish them to be.

Take this nonsense about teaching only the history we want to know, or just the facts that back up our beliefs. It is human nature to be offended by our collective past, but then I wasn't there so I don’t take it personal.

We need to simplify things, make them easier to understand. Take out all the information not relevant to the concern. Take the emotion and rhetoric from the dialogue and stick to the facts.

History: Simple. It either happened or it didn’t. That’s it, simple. You want to put a lot of hyperbole around it, it isn’t going to change the truth.

Climate Change: It is either happening, or it isn’t. Disputing the cause is not going to change the fact that if actions found to be contributing to the problem are not changed or abandoned, things will become worse. Either way, with nearly half the population of our country living within fifty miles of the coast, and sea levels expected to rise significantly, shouldn’t we be considering a response, instead of injecting doubt into the verifiable facts; we are about to be confronted with an irreversible situation if we do nothing but argue over a response. The tipping point is that place on a seesaw where everything is equal, balanced, if only for a moment, and then…

Race Relations: Get over it. How can primarily a Christian nation that claims to adhere to the teachings of Christ, disregard the right of every human being who is claimed to be created in God’s image and deserving of equality and respect, be denied their humanity because of their origins. Simple, everyone is deserving of respect and being treated with the values we claim to embrace, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, all told some of us so.

Religion: We have come to agree over the centuries that there is one God, if we believe in such an entity. We have diverged from the Greek anthology of Gods, and no matter what we individually or collectively call the deity of our choice, we can agree there is only the One. Killing or being murdered in God’s name doesn’t seem to be one of the commandments, no matter how right we believe we are. 

We need ask ourselves, if we are so confident in our belief of our God, what does it matter what anyone else believes or doesn't. The universality of judgement day does not as far as I know, contain any mention of a jury of our choosing, deciding on our and others acceptance or rejection as far as getting into God’s heaven is concerned.

We implore God to grant forgiveness, as we claim to understand we are flawed creatures, and yet when asked by fellow human occupants of the same world to adhere to those principles, we doubt the wisdom of the question, and the justice in the answer.

Arrogance: Right and wrong, increasingly suspect, depending upon who you ask.

We have become political pawns in a game of power. The pulpit of persuasion is bought and paid for by those who proclaim to have the answer, the magic potion, God’s ear, that will lead us all to the promise land, eventually. In the mean time they deserve the privilege they posses because they are best prepared to lead the majority of lesser beings down their righteous path to peace and happiness. Possibly not in this life, but certainly in the next. All we need do is play follow the leader. Forget about all that nonsense we participated in when playing the circle game, "pass it on," when children. 

Children? We are expected to continue to be mere dependents as we are expected to give up the cake, in hope of its crumbs.

I know I’ll be accused of being a socialist, communist, a deep state member; it doesn’t matter. The way their game works is it has to be played by two sides, presumptive visibility. One side not invested in the experience of the game and its rewards, but only the winning or losing. The winning and losing mentality creates a conundrum that disavows all the principled involvement in fairness, goodness, inclusivity, equality, opportunity, and on and on, but claims it does. 

When we allow ourselves to be pitted against one another, we forget about what matters, us. We let our planet and our children’s future dissolve while we argue over who we should blame. If we put some of the energy we generate spreading hate and distrust we could change the entire power grid of our country, and I am not talking about volts, but votes.

Crime and poverty go hand in hand down the path of inopportunity as we argue over the role of, who is to monitor the activity of those we fear, because we cannot understand. We want the police and military to instill a peace we refuse to recognize, because for peace to exist, empathy and tolerance has to not just be called for, but accepted and implemented as a human right.

We were arguing, discussing, the other day, this notion of democracy and what it means. When you are attempting to keep voting from people because they don’t agree with you, then we aren’t talking about democracy, we are talking about arrogant manipulation of a game to insure the other team has no say in making the rules that govern them. 

One thing I don’t understand is how you can believe you are so virtuously correct, have only the best answers, the only true way forward, and want to deprive others of the same opportunity. If you are as talented and deserving as you tell us you are, it shouldn’t be a problem remaining cock of the walk.

If you set up system where only the privileged and powerful rule, what happens when you are no longer part of those in power but have been relegated to the place you worked so hard keep others. You have designed your own extinction, there is no way back after a system has been rigged to favor one side over the other, and you find yourself on the wrong side.

We then are left with one option, revolution. Any system born of revolution is bound to fail as it has shallow roots, and the first good breeze will bring it down, and it will be replaced by another who hopefully will have learned something from studying the real history of our past, and put down deep roots that will support the visible entity.

It seems like the saying “darkest before the dawn,” has relevance in todays world, not because it is fact, but because we need it to be if we are to prepare for the dawn. Change is inevitable, and for the morning to fulfill its promise we must demand an equitable inclusive future, because “what once was last, will later be first,” or so the story goes.