Wednesday, June 25, 2008

How the Light Gets in.


Here's a rewrite of an oldie from the second year of EFA.

We humans are in a unique cross roads in our evolution.

And we are faced with unique and substantial challenges.

For millennia, humankind has been building fires of one size or another,

and we have used these fires,

to drive away animals,

to cook them when we can,

to warm our loved ones,

to drive our machines,

to power our computers,

to destroy our enemies.

This fire has served us very well.

But now, the very atmosphere that we need to burn this fire in,

is saying,

No more.

Conveniently, but not necessarily helpfully,

the sticks that we have been using to fuel our fires,

which now lie farther and farther away from our homes,

are now half way used up,

and becoming more and more difficult to find.

Meanwhile, other growing powerful tribes want these sticks too.

And the forest cannot keep up with the need for more.

Therefore, some would reason,

We must use our bigger sticks to get more burning sticks.
.
One day,

a very wise man came into camp and he said,

"We have come to the time when we do not burn our sticks."

We can use our sticks to scratch the earth,

so it will bring forth more food.

We can stack our sticks to build great strong structures,

so our children will be warm.

We can point our sticks at the heavens,

so they will receive the energy from the universe.

We can even use our sticks to bring us to unknown new worlds.

But first, we must reshape our most powerful subtle stick.

We must bend it and place a tight string on it.

And launch the arrow of human potential.

We must reform our mind.

We must reshape our thinking.

We must give our positions up.

The old ways of thinking,

Liberal
.
Conservative
.
Environmentalist
.
Corporatist
.
Left
.
Right
.
Democrat

.
Republican
.
Libertarian
.
Justician
.
subject
.
object

.
me

.
it

Are passe.

At least they should be.

Give up your ideas about country.

Give up your ideals about energy.

Give up what you think you know.

Give up the GNP, the DNC, the SUV,

on ABC, and WMD.

As the poet says,

There is a crack, a crack in everything,

that's how the light gets in.



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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eighteen million cracks in the glass ceiling weren't enough to light the way for the most highly qualified candidate for the Democratic Party nomination.

9:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

June 26,2008

Earthfamilyalpha is a benefit to all life on the planet and I want to take this moment to express my gratitude for what it does. Day before yesterday it brought us James Hansen's address to Congress on the urgency of action on climate change ( The Climate Change Trials )
and today it addresses that issue of all issues in the most profound way in the piece" How the Light Comes in.".

Time will test the ultimate relevance of all other issues from the price of gasoline to gay marriage on the basis of how it plays out in relation to THE BIG ISSUE, of planetary change and survival. The Bible says," for everyone who has will be given more, and he will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him". Matthew 25:29 (NIV) If mankind is measured by the parable of the talents we will surely be found wanting, for not only have we failed to prosper from our gift we have not even done as well as the servant who buried has talent and returned it to the Master intact! In fact if we don't undergo an immediate and profound change of attitude, all of our assets will be turned over to mother nature's referee in bankruptcy and we will no longer be in control of our fate. My thanks to the blog for making this clear.

Dan

5:17 PM  
Blogger oZ said...

Thanks for the thoughtful and kind comments Dan. In deference to Leonard Cohen, I had to change the title and the end of the post to How the Light GETS In.

10:37 PM  

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