There is, of course, no end to the magnificence and horror in the human drama. Across the continents, humanity rises to every challenge, sinks to any depth. We bless nature’s miracles yet destroy at will.
We accept this polarity as human nature then move on in our ‘glassy essence’. All the while our righteousness lords over other life; yet we beseech gods for mercy. Our anger flares to violence; yet we demand justice. We covet ceaselessly, give generously.
Not least, so many suffer relentlessly, wondering each day at living another. So many are refugees from disaster or violence, escaping under unfamiliar skies to avoid closer death, grasping what is left – their child, ragged clothes, a pot, a photograph, a blanket.
So many are victims of injustice, of the vagaries of despotism or ill luck, unable to bring their wisps of hope to legal or social recourse.
Especially with the rapidly increasing vulnerability of life on Earth, how do we come to terms with this ‘marble and mud’ of our existence? How do we resurrect our humanity?
Within the stirrings of the last two decades, there seemed a new grace born upon this world, a clearer understanding that our living – this heavenly breath of existence – must embrace an inherent responsibility for each of us towards the lives of all sentient beings.
Yet it now seems a grace too far, too often still foundering on the greed and selfishness and myopia of the few, not wholeheartedly raising the hopes and prospects of the many.
As our universal, intertwined fate becomes closer and more commanding -- well examined in our journals and debating chambers, in our barber shops and coffee houses -- may leaders from all communities and nations again tilt the world towards the side of the angels, finding new and encompassing ways to end war, poverty, famine, injustice and disease.
Most urgently...let us ask ourselves...in profound reverence for our fragile, transcendent web of life...“How deeply do I care about our common future? How can I help rescue our humanity?"