Out of the mouths of poets...

I picked up a favorite book the other day and as I'm likely to do when seeking inspiration - or comfort - in chaotic times (like now), I opened to a random page. This is what revealed itself to me:

"We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was nor more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness."

"Of The Empire" from Red Bird by Mary Oliver

It scared me as I read this, because it rang so true. That this could be the epitaph for our generation, was truly sobering. Now, whether the poet intended this as a commentary on our world in this election season, I have no way of knowing. I assume not, but am struck again by how accurate a picture it paints of us as a people if we don't change. If we don't exercise our rights and create a new will in the people - WE the people - so that our hearts enlarge, our minds become more open, and our arms embrace the wider world.

The call is now. NOW is the time to do what we can to begin to change. And the first step along the way? Vote your conscience, vote your heart, just GO VOTE to change the picture we will leave behind for generations yet to come, and bring as many as you can along the path with you.