Calm gives families the base to succeed

In light of Thanksgiving Day just passed, and the rapid approach of year's end, words from a literary gem came to mind. Charles Dickens began his story A Tale of Two Cities, about a turbulent time in French history, the Revolution being the central figure, that led to a comparison with the unrest in Britain arising from rapid industrialisation. Dickens wrote:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. 

Views of the our age are at odds with each other, it's hard to find those who accept the middle ground. This is especially so since the opinion-leaders are absolute in their declarations about how much evil there is abroad in society, and how their exhortations are to be obeyed under pain of social cancellation.

Dickens' words force us to assess where we are at in our lives; to judge our neck of the woods and our place in it; to weigh whether we know what we are about; and, finally, to make a decision about our individual lives that is a both... and... verdict rather than an either... or... one. 

A judgment of the "via media" - the middle path - kind can give us the courage to press on with calm in our heart soul, and in the spirit that Beat poet Gary Snyder advised in his poem For the Children: Stay together/Learn the flowers/Go light. This triple plea has been inspiring this blog for more than a decade. 

It's imperative that the search for meaning is undertaken in a serious manner, rather than letting ourselves be swept along by the various layers of influencers. We should return to the basic guidelines for human conduct, starting with prayer, and next with attention to the family as the primary unit of society, so clearly on display at Thanksgiving. 

Snyder's poem goes like this: 

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes,

of statistics

lie before us.

the steep climb

of everything, going up,

up, as we all

go down.

In the next century

or the one beyond that,

they say,

are valleys, pastures,

we can meet there in peace

if we make it.

To climb these coming crests

one word to you, to

you and your children:

stay together

learn the flowers

go light

From Snyder's 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning volume, Turtle Island.

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