A Different America and A Better World Is Possible
"Promise and then follow through." Despite the chaos, I feel a new togetherness emerging. We can learn to love each other when we join each other's differences instead of fighting them.
“Well I come from, down around Tennessee
But the people in California
Are nice to me, America
It don't matter where I may roam
Tell you people that it's home sweet home
America, America
And my brothers are all black and white, yellow too
And the red man is right, to expect a little from you
Promise and then follow through, America”
— Waylon Jennings, “America”
Everyone is talking about the world falling apart. How about the one we are trying to connect, heal, and build together? Yes, the world is in turmoil, but we don’t have the luxury about being “right” about it’s present state of chaos. We cannot afford to wallow endlessly in the very real conspiracies (World Economic Forum), tragedies (new wars, i.e. Ukraine invasion), and suffering (spike in poverty and starvation, due to our ill-advised shutdown of the world economy over Covid for two years).
If we give into hopelessness and panic, we merely add to the the barbarity ostensibly taking over the world. We can instead create a new story, and WE WILL.
We are told constantly that the bad guys are winning (temporarily perhaps), and that pretty much all political parties are corrupt and without principle (mostly true), and that megalomaniacs of the world are grabbing power like it’s a cocaine binge (duh!).
And…. ? What about the next chapter, the one where we are broken of our illusions and distractions—from our petty games— by our own pain and the pain of the world, and we reacquaint ourselves with our spirit, and the spirit of a New Heaven and a New Earth, the cosmic possibilities always at our fingertips, if we are but willing to pay attention?
“Ask and ye shall receive.” In reflection, the other day, my heart was asking for an answer to the chaos. And what came to me? An image and a song, a potent memory. I was riding down the winding Poudre Canyon road in Colorado in a U.S. Forest Service truck. The sun was mellowing in the western sky, coming through my window. I was amid the splendor of nature, and the rush of majestic spruces, and this little miracle of song came on, as if to recall me to the grace already in full bloom all around me. That song was, “America”, by Waylon Jennings.
Now I am not known as a country fan, but this song went right to my heart. It said to me, “Grace!”. We might not be there— to the full promise of humanity— but we can get closer there if we can appreciate kindness (“people… are nice to me”) learn to expect a little bit more from ourselves and our countries, if we “promise and then follow through.”
Shall we stew in our juices, shake our heads, fly from our homes warning everyone the sky is falling like Chicken Little, because an acorn (or even a pack of flour) fell on our heads? NO! We can come together, and focus on what is right and simple. We can get off our butts and work for that world to be built upon the ashes of an old world of inequality, waste, and materialism that has kept our souls and spirits from creating, growing, and connecting.
This starts with embracing and seeing the beauty in our differences, and WANTING to experience the joy of that creative, authentic difference. Instead of following our programming that difference is threat and division and “stranger danger”, we can learn into and believe INTO what the gospels as well as the great bringers of peace like Mahatma Gandhi are reminding us: “Love your neighbor”, “Love a stranger”, and even “Love your enemy.”
And we have to start with the enemy in ourselves first— this discontent, this feeling of being left out, let down, and left behind. We can do this by refusing to revolve around a social media only constructed to reinforce our prejudices, our fears, and our self-absorption. Instead we are invited to turn deeply inward to our beautiful spirit, and face expansively outward to this beautiful land and this beautiful world, into the beauty of our hearts mirrored in a beautiful universe and all its beautiful people.
We are asked in this time and place to remember our own spirits and souls, the authors and embuers of our lives, and “ask just a little bit more” from ourselves, “promise (to listen to the whisperings of the soul)… and then follow through.”
At last a hopeful dialog that connects we humans with hope and a positive vision!