Journal: The Burden of History ~ Ignore it at Our Peril (revised edition)

JOURNAL

The Burden of History ~ Ignore it at Our Peril
(revised edition)

I sometimes wish I disliked history. Because if I did, it would keep my perspective firmly and naively in the ‘here and now’, with no interest in the past and none in the future, simply living for the day. 

History does not live for the day but it most certainly lives in the day. 

History forces the past to be brought into sharp focus, and the balances and scales placed firmly in the hands with the injunction: 

Because of what you did then, this is the consequence you bring upon yourselves now.
You could have averted this catastrophe had you taken an interest in the past affairs of men and women.
But you didn’t.
The consequence is forthcoming calamity and the destruction of the world as you know it, and of millions of people wiped off the face of the earth.
Do not comfort yourselves with some notion that you speak of nuclear catastrophe. 
The consequence of your refusal to measure up to the hour,
to confront the mistakes of the past,
means the destruction of millions upon millions of people. 

As always, it starts with one man… who then attracts another man, a woman or two, and another man. And we are catapulted into the future with such violence, such force, and with such planned and executed discrimination, that we unleash a killing machine. 

And all because we refused to learn the lessons of the past, we refused to accept that we are the cause of what is about to be unleashed ~ a scene that would make that idiotic Dante’s Inferno look like a mushroom mega party. 

Will we survive?

History ponders. Ah, yes. Always self-interest. The steady gaze, penetrating, searching, deep within parts of our core we never, until now, knew existed.

The reply is quiet, oh so very quiet, spoken in an instant in every language…

How arrogant you are to even ask! 

None of you will.  

Antidote

In an international call on Sunday 14 July, between Germany and Great Britain, we naturally tend to chat about world events, our start-point tending to be how such events will impact upon our lives, or the lives of our families and friends.

Wisdom entered the conversation. I listened intently. When we are surrounded by disarray, mayhem even, look for that thought, that stillness.

It stands out despite being silent, for with it one senses peace.

Our thoughts range widely. To my left is a thought, to the right of my eye is another thought, but my gaze fixes upon that point between those thoughts, that area of stillness, right in front of me and, in a way, enveloping me.

In the pupil of my eye the jagged, sharpened edges of some Berg or Mountain, become soft in the silence. They no longer threaten.

The greater the turbulence in my thoughts ranging within this inner space - this peace - so, too, is the greater outreach of peace to each and every thought.

Where is this space? Where is this peace? Why is there such turbulence? The silence replies ever so softly…

The more the turbulence, the greater the wisdom

And there is my answer, our answer. Wisdom.

Wisdom never deserts us. In the space, in its stillness, do we find peace. This space is the consciousness of each one of us. The essence of our being.

Last night, when I lay unaware of this space, only aware of the violent turbulence of all my thoughts, memory raced through the corridors of my mind.

My eyes became heavy, but my ears attuned. I heard that quiet reassurance. Away, I drifted.

Be Still, and know that I am G-D.

Sei still und wisse, dass ich Gott bin.

[ii]

[i] R.S. von K Rheinland-Pfalz

[ii] Psalm 46: 10

13 August 2024
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© 2024 Kenneth Thomas Webb

Digital Art by KTW unless otherwise credited

First published 14 July 2024