“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
In one of my favorite films, A Walk In The Clouds, a fire destroys the family vineyard. The father, in a fit of a pain induced drunken rage hurls a lantern, setting generations of family wealth ablaze. The next morning in the ghostly mist, the once lush vineyard lay in gray dusty waste. The patriarchs are crushed, the women lament, all seems lost until a newcomer, an outsider remembers a small hill above the vineyard where the mother plant lived. He races there to find that her deep-running roots have not been charred by the invasive flames. Hope is rekindled. Even more so a bond is formed and a return to the true wealth of family connection is inspired.
There is something about the human spirit that is sometimes galvanized by adversity. Under the current circumstances we may find ourselves taking inventory on preparedness and daily habits. At present, gardening and back to earth activities are at an all-time high. Is it because people are staying at home or because they see a greater need for some level of self- reliance? That reliance piece is a potent point to ponder. We have watched our government fumble and flood us with jabberwocky as they struggle to lead us through this. Most of them know only as much or less than the average one of us. At the end of the day, it does not matter whether those that govern our nation know exactly what to do in the face of a such a threat. We have a right, even a need, to take more responsibility; the ability to respond in a way conducive to our well being. When the boom falls it boils down to how we respond as a community; individuals coming together for a cause beyond commonality to lighten the overall load. The governing voices to many are distant babbling echoes. Why, because they will still be compensated and voted in again, and it’s the marginalized who suffer most. It’s a little easier to tell someone to be patient from a comfortable position. Millions more are without incomes at this time, businesses gone belly up, and day to day living has become a matter of survival. We’ve focused so much on “terrorist” threats from beyond the borders, spending billions on military might that we (some not all) never imagined this coming. This alien invader will create a major paradigm shift.
More is yet to come. Govern your own ship. Reclaim your power. Plant a garden, teach your children, turn off the programming and learn a marketable trade, take care of this body that transports your spirit through this life. Reconnect to mother earth. Reconnect to your abilities. Reconnect to each other. Reconnect to whatever force or power you believe set the course of life into motion. That is our root. The depth of that connection will determine the development of human life as we move forward in harmony with the natural order of things. We’ve adapted to a manufactured environment and built an artificial life force that is not solely sustainable in a time of unpredicted unrest. In a state of fear and confusion, we have allowed politics to dictate reality. A.R.T. (A Resurrecting Truth) will help us to truly perceive that reality and subsequently create one in which we can do more than merely survive. In this state our development will be in harmony with the natural world rather than a pseudo-progression at the expense of it, and ultimately us.
Notes of A Native Son 