Chain Reactions

Earthquakes, tsunamis, boardroom shakeups and union busting. What do these have in common? People.

We are part of an interconnected web of existence, as much as we want to believe that we are untouchable islands living in hermetically sealed bell jars.

The planet is a living system, people are living systems, and the natural world is a web of life so intricate, it will never be fully understood.

There are people in the world whose only thought is greed-driven toward accumulation of material wealth. Corporations are given the same status as living beings, but let me note for the record: there is no life there but the life of the thief who steals under the cover of night.

The governor of Wisconsin is paving the way for collective bargaining to be a thing of the past, the conservative wing of the Wisconsin legislature is engaged in union busting, and the President of the United States says nothing about any of this.

We have a class of politicians that works for the banks, the insurance companies and other corporate interests, many of which do their banking abroad, rather than in the U.S.

Regulation and oversight are abandoned as archaic.

There are people who tell us that we must live by sets of values. These are the people who are eroding and eliminating systems that work for the benefit of people and planet. These very people spew the rhetoric, but do whatever they want. These people are inhumanists. Their actions cause destructive chain reactions that ripple through the natural world, leaving paths of devastation in their wake.

I mention this because we live on a small, rare planet. No matter what we humans do to one another, nothing will ever trump nature. So take that, you inhumanists!

For a number of weeks, I have followed the articles in the papers about earthquakes. You can view information about earthquakes that have happened worldwide at this web address:

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/

The most fascinating thing is the pattern that is so very clear of where earthquakes most frequently occur. As long as two weeks ago, I had seen a pattern of activity that led to the big New Zealand quake. It looked very much like a chain reaction. I wondered if there would be other large quakes along the typical quake pattern lines. That question was answered today, as devastation continues to ripple through the natural world, leaving paths of devastation in its wake.

Let us all say a prayer for the people, worldwide, who are suffering from shock in one of these devastated areas. Let us all say a prayer for the people, worldwide, who are becoming further marginalized by corrupt politicians. Let us say a prayer for the children who have been orphaned and left homeless because a natural disaster killed their parents.

More, let us say a prayer for all the inhumanists, that their hearts of stone will become hearts of flesh, filled with compassion for the needs and well-being of others.

Let us pray that the inhumanists will one day become wholeheartedly human.

If such a day dawns, that will show that human-beings have finally evolved from their primitive childhood.

No Writing Peace

There is no writing peace;

peace is an unnatural word.

Peace should be
an element ubiquitous,
like water, light and air,
born into all cells and fibers,
an active ingredient in bread,
planted as a crop,
mixed into cement,
displaying ultimate flexibility
along with diamond hardness,
wearing like iron,
yet as soft as down,
yielding to every need.

Peace should be
all things to all people,
indeed, all Being.

Instead, the human world
is built on the shifting sands
of arguments called diplomacy,
and the groundwater
liberally laced
with discord,
tribal enmity,
provincial vision,
irrational governance,
top-down authority,
and condoned oppression.

This thinking erodes the earth
by a grasping of more than is required,
and profanes life by promoting death,
while claiming to make sense
of an insensible world.

There is no writing peace.

Peace may be a beautiful word,
but until the word can
write people
to right action,
and the kind of living
that comes as naturally
and habitually effortless
as water, light and air,
the sands and time,
then its beauty is meaningless
and has no real place
in the language of life.

© 2011 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Small Miracles

At the risk of sounding maudlin, I wish to report another holiday miracle.

It is a small thing, but I believe it illustrates something significant about humanity.

At least six months ago, both of my children's scooters were stolen. I had gone to the trouble of marking them, both with indelible markers and with a metal etching tool, with each child's name and my phone number.

Alas, the phone did not ring.

I sent an email request to my local FreeCycle network, to see if anyone had a scooter or two piled up in the garage.  FreeCycle, by the way, is a fabulous help when it comes to household management. All the world is a swap meet, after all, and if you need to get rid of that something that has been gathering dust, but that someone else might want enough to drive to your house and pick up, this is the network for you.

After a few weeks, I received a reply from a woman who was clearing out her garage. Evidently, her teens had moved on from kick scooters to bicycles or even cars. So she had a tangled mass of scooter frames in various states of disrepair. I took those off her hands, but we hadn't gotten around to reconstruction.

("HA!" You say. "You just added to your JUNK!" Read on.)

Just the other day, we received a phone call from a woman who had been cleaning out her back yard and had discovered a scooter that did not belong to her family, with this name and phone number. Did the scooter belong to us?

My husband had to drive half an hour to retrieve the scooter, which had seen much use during its walkabout. I was emboldened to pull out the snaggle of scooter frames from the garage. From five scooter skeletons, we were able to reconstruct two useable scooters, one of which I carefully inscribed with my daughter's name and my phone number.

The children were delighted to have scooters once again.

I, meanwhile, have resolved to obtain the needed parts for the remaining three frames and to finish fixing them up. I will then donate the four extra scooters to a nearby homeless shelter. One good turn deserves another. Amen! And, let us pass it on!

Even at this time of year, when people seem to be all about things and commerce, there are golden individuals who will go out of their way do the right thing. This is the significant point about humanity.

May your Winter Holiday, whichever it may be, be filled with the goodness and kindness of humanity in all your travels and meetings.

Be filled, and pass it ON!