Our president states that North Korea, since it allows some citizens to starve while building weapons of mass destruction, is part of an evil axis. Meanwhile, Bush promotes his defense agenda while we also have starving people.
Corporations and nations bow to the inherent good of quarterly profits, yet fundamental needs of all people are not fulfilled. Win/lose scenarios are used to justify profit mongering, as the deck in the game is always stacked in favor of the powerful against the weak.
In addition to no "bottom line" in economic formulas considering the basics needs of all, the health of the planet and all of its species are neglected to the potential point of destruction.
We believe we have advanced, but that is a matter of assumption and faith. Given the millennia of human existence, the notion that society -- relationships between nature, people, communities and nations -- has improved is a wish, not a fact.
We have no clear or comprehensive idea as to how members of the oldest human communities interacted, communicated and lived. We are rapidly destroying those few, consistently ancient cultures still around, without understanding what we lose.
Perhaps, in the unrecorded ancient world, the elements and the natural world presented an immense and apparent force, making interpersonal cooperation and attention to a greater good the norm.
The strongest saw that the weakest were fed and sheltered before using additional food and space. Any such accumulation occurred only after the sick were healed, the weak were strengthened and the poor in spirit or material need were made whole.
All watched all. Intentions and feelings were instantly spread and shared, verbally and in other ways, through sign, expression and thought. A hurt to one or joy to another was subsequently and rapidly spread throughout the community. The community often contained more than just human sentience.
The highest rules: love, caring and giving. As all made this top priority, bringing talent and skill to bear, there became a world with little to zero unfulfilled individual needs, because all basics were supplied in abundance.
Almost everyone was able to put the good of a family member, friend or neighbor equal to or above his own. The rare person unable to participate was given more and more helping hands until almost any disability found productive compensation, fitting in by a sometimes novel, yet peaceful path.
The truly rare, almost unheard of, individual of violent or self-indulgent temperament was turned out into the wilderness at large, to be taught his way by nature and that which is beyond nature, the template of existence itself. After a variable period of time and trial, the developed seer would return with new information and perhaps benefits for all.
Death and life were interwoven with rituals of timeless meaning, of that which always is -- a power beyond human strength and cleverness. Constant attention to this power weakened disease, petulance and strife to the point of non-existence.
Selfishness, personal profit, trickery and war never even arose, not because they could not, but because given their insanity in the face of common knowledge, they would not.
Only once, from isolation, fear, the belief in pain, hatred and greed, one small group repeatedly coveted well-being and even took lives. Banishment to nature failed to fully help.
Loss of life, destruction of property and all forms of unnecessary pain seemed to be making a beginning with a potential to become entrenched. With tears in their eyes, the leaders of all nations sent the destructors out to sea.
Each year for all these years, the seers of society congregate at the invisible beech for a nightlong vigil, praying for the healing and re-direction of the once violent energy -- a redirection into a place of transformation until again all is love, and that is the only rule.
