Slightly Off Center                       

            Alpha and Omega

       Something is seriously wrong when the survival of the human race becomes the overriding theme at our family gatherings. When each waking moment, and those just before falling asleep are overwhelmed by the question of the survivability of our species -something is terribly amiss. 

 With our never-ending history of carnage and destruction, I question whether we are nothing more than clothed apes in a circus we curiously call humanity? Resigning itself to a well-trodden path, scored and paved over by its oldest philosophy, mankind hastily rambles toward the future. Its maxim: The end justifies the means. 

          For time after time, when we unshackle the baseness of our nature and let it take its course we allow it to ravage the earth and its people. Proving once again the truth that we are more than just capable.  In fact, we seem to have an innate desire to stoop to the apex of our lowest creed: that of Neanderthal. In the aftermath, leaving intact our hunter mythology unscathed and little else.

                     Yet, when the dust settles, once again we righteously give ourselves the liberty to stand erect.  Calmly we go about preening each other while blithely masquerading acts of civility during our scant moments of peace.

    Here we are on the planet of the apes, standing tall in the shadow of a giant monolith, called Inc.  Death wearing a top hat and tails petitions us to be our chaperone; even luck has forsaken us, in this a time of unbridled chaos.  Arguments seem senseless as to whether happenstance or providence brought us to this point.

                   The question arises, whom shall we appoint to lead us?  Someone special to heed this clarion call for an endgame of biblical proportions.  Where does one find a leader so audacious - someone pious and self-righteous enough to strike the first blow; our very own Scaramouch kind of a mirror image of our inner child?

    I ponder the absence of surprise, or lack of irony in our situation.  But instead I find it most appropriate, that in the beginning of the twenty-first century, at the pinnacle of modern man’s knowledge and technological prowess, we finally arrived together at the crossroads.

               Hereto, if we take an accounting of ourselves, is it not abysmal that nowhere on earth amongst all the world’s governments can we find a statesman or diplomat in these troubling times?  Is it not loathsome that nowhere on earth amongst all the world’s religions can we find a theologian that is a peacemaker or a person of peace?  Is it not contemptible and despicable that amongst all those we have given the right and means to represent us, bear none, lack the capacity, conviction, nor the spine to do so.

   So, in solitude and silence, I meditate, calming my restless mind.  I focus my thoughts on our dilemma, seeking to find an answer to mitigate our present course, believed by some to be a prophesied apocalyptic end.

          To find an alternative to the one presently offered – a glimmer of hope to illuminate the way will demand nothing less of us than individual courage.  On this day, this very hour, during our watch, if reason and logic are to prevail over fear, each of us must judiciously hold a conscious trial of our own principles.  For it matters little that our governments and theologies have violated these same principles.  Still, no one could find cause enough for us to abandon them.

  In good conscience, be true to yourself and do something.

© Philip J. Rappa

Home
Alpha and Omega
Rhapsody in Democracy
Requiem for the Silliness I Learned in Civics Class
Oh-Sum-Bodies-Been-Lying
Help Me If You Can, I'm Feeling Bad
Fear & Loathing in America
Choose Heads or Tails
Open Letter to the President
In God We Trust
The House Always Wins
We The People
Salted Peanuts
Enough Ranting - Just For Fun

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