I don’t use this page much. I keep most of my ignorance to myself. But today brought something different.
Marking MLK day, Doc Searls shared a personal haunt- that the last word of “unarmed truth and unconditional love” won’t come in his lifetime.
Usually, when I become aware of a personal feeling, I tend to address it privately, if at all. But because I know Doc likes it like this, I’ll share using this form.
Part of the lessons I have learned from using love as a guide and inspiration, which is definitely what I, as a white suburban youngster learned from Martin Luther King, is that it is an end in itself. Acceptance of its failures, as well as its successes, is a great part of its power. Being in the moment of the expression, whether it is appreciated or hated, or ignored, does not diminish the benefits it bestows upon the person doing the act which embodies the love.
There are centuries of hate to heal, legions of cruelties, violent and otherwise, to reconcile. That last word isn’t probably within several generations. What we need to teach our children is how to transcend our biological and temporal limits through commitment to what we know and understand to be the better ways of the world.
In my current project I have come to understand that there are as many interpretations of ‘the environment’ as there are ‘market’. We have people, good committed people, who can rationalize great suffering in the name of either. The task of educating and enrolling each and every one to the changes that are required to have a society that makes its footprint on nature an enhancement and will actually make it possible for all to live well is probably several generations long.
That doesn’t change my goals. It doesn’t change my commitments. It just makes me appreciate that now is my time. Now is my life, and what a remarkable time it is.
If love transcends all, it certainly will.