On Wings Of Hope

     As we bid goodbye to another weary year and try to predict what kinds
of difficulties are lying ahead for us, in the next twelve months, there always
remains our one, unfulfilled, universal wish, for this year, and for every new
year.  That wish which never comes true is, of course, the age-old longing
for world peace: peace between nations and peace between all peoples.

     A couple of thousand years ago, there was a teacher and reformer who
gave us the simple but truthful formula to achieve genuine brotherhood and
peace; he said that all we have to do is treat everyone else as we ourselves
want to be treated.  But that message has been conscripted and then ignored
by many, monolithic, religious organizations, all of which see themselves as
the one true religion.   They all declare that anyone who does not agree
with them, is of a non-believing sect, and therefore perhaps subhuman and
unworthy of life on this earth.

     We have learned by their examples, that lasting peace can not be achieved
until we have universal education, based on science and truth, rather than on
rote indoctrination and mythology.  That is a goal which seems evermore
impossible to achieve in all of the many, impoverished, third-world countries
on our planet.  And now, even in our own country, we have the example of
a modern democracy with a currant administration promoting xenophobia,
fear, hatred and ignorance of scientific truth.

     So, where does that leave us in our quest for lasting peace?  We either
have to be optimistic or pessimistic, as to whether peace can ever be achieved,
let alone whether it can be achieved at any time in this century.  The older we
get and the more we see of the world, the more we are forced to lean
evermore toward pessimism.   But to be totally pessimistic is to be dead, or
at least non-functioning.  All that we have left to us, as a middle-ground,
between the two extremes, is just hope, and the determination to keep
speaking the truth.

     As long as hope is alive, we have to keep trying to move forward, each
of us in his or her own way, doing our parts as individuals, and hoping for the
ripple effect to grow and swell, until it touches multitudes, and reverberates
across the globe.





(  There is a painting which was intended to accompany this posting,
but I do not yet have a digital photo of it on file. I will try to remedy that,
and post the picture as soon as I can. )