Seal Five; Seal One
"... an army of pure desperation and hate. Young Stanleyville boys and old village men, anyone who can find a gun or a machete, all banded together. They tie nkisis of leaves around their wrists and declare themselves impermeable to bullets, immune to death. And so they are, Anatole says, 'For how can you kill what is already dead?'"
-- Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
In some ways I find it very sad that the great tiring of the age is coming upon much of society. It manifests itself as decadence, as senseless violence, as crimes against humanity so great as to completely defy understanding. It is present in the binge culture, in the drug culture, in the weekend culture; it rules the arms trade, and the corporate hand, and the casual destruction of community. It eats relationships and attacks commitment. It is the great feeling of hopelessness and despair and inevitability that sweeps inexorably through society again and again.
And yet for all this there is hope. Even in the midst of it, perhaps even because of it, comes something new. For in the destruction of bonds comes freedom; in the destruction of community comes independence. Before the storm comes a restlessness, a looking to the red sky that foreshadows change. And change is coming: a time when those who should despair from their lonliness will walk the world in solitude and leave it changed; a time when those who should lay down and die from their hopelessness will enter the battle unafraid and emerge unscathed as conquerers - more than conquerers. A time is coming when the broken ones, those from broken homes in broken communities in broken nations will rise up with undivided hearts to change the face of the world forever. For when we are without bonds we are without hope; when we are without hope we are without fear; and when we are without fear we will pass untouched through the ranks of an an enemy that cowers in terror. Make no mistake: there will be none who stand before the eyes of those who come in the surety of their hopelessness to the gates of the enemy.
Once again, I am left looking to the red skies.
-- Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
In some ways I find it very sad that the great tiring of the age is coming upon much of society. It manifests itself as decadence, as senseless violence, as crimes against humanity so great as to completely defy understanding. It is present in the binge culture, in the drug culture, in the weekend culture; it rules the arms trade, and the corporate hand, and the casual destruction of community. It eats relationships and attacks commitment. It is the great feeling of hopelessness and despair and inevitability that sweeps inexorably through society again and again.
And yet for all this there is hope. Even in the midst of it, perhaps even because of it, comes something new. For in the destruction of bonds comes freedom; in the destruction of community comes independence. Before the storm comes a restlessness, a looking to the red sky that foreshadows change. And change is coming: a time when those who should despair from their lonliness will walk the world in solitude and leave it changed; a time when those who should lay down and die from their hopelessness will enter the battle unafraid and emerge unscathed as conquerers - more than conquerers. A time is coming when the broken ones, those from broken homes in broken communities in broken nations will rise up with undivided hearts to change the face of the world forever. For when we are without bonds we are without hope; when we are without hope we are without fear; and when we are without fear we will pass untouched through the ranks of an an enemy that cowers in terror. Make no mistake: there will be none who stand before the eyes of those who come in the surety of their hopelessness to the gates of the enemy.
Once again, I am left looking to the red skies.
posted by backgroundbob at 12:58 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home