(If you notice that I published a similar article a while ago, thanks for paying attention. If everyone would listen to me the first time, I wouldn’t have to repeat myself so much. But I just can’t look out at this bleak world of ours and not say something. Besides, the closing line alone is worth the effort.)
The world has all gone wrong, and it’s getting so much worse on a daily basis that it staggers my impoverished imagination. Newly reported atrocities are so horrific that I cannot even speak of them, but there’s no need. By now, everyone who is not horrified and disgusted either has one’s head in the sand, or is somehow profiting from the rape of the earth and its people. And, to return to my main idea, the root of the problem is plunging levels of consciousness, world-wide, ultimately due to the loss of the Trees, which is slowly making our planet unable to support life. Here are some fantasies to help me get through the night ~
Ukraine ~ Like Saul on the road to Damascus, Vladimir Putin wakes up one morning in astonishment, realizing that he has been going about this all wrong. “Love Mother Russia, or we’ll kill you !” has not been an effective strategy so far. So, on this new morning, Putin calls off all of his troops, and orders them all to return to Russia, where he will thank them for their service, pay them well, and retire them from active duty. With all of the money he will save by not buying or building bombs, drones, and missiles, or fielding troops for his war, he will send funds to Ukraine for reconstruction, with apologies for his previous errors of judgment. He will provide funds for schools, healthcare, and green alternatives to replace the power structure and everything else he has spent the last four years destroying. None of this will have much immediate effect, but he realizes that to recover from the damage he has done will take decades, even generations.
Palestine ~ On the same holy morning, choirs of angels will serenade Benjamin Netanyahu with their harps, and suggest that he reconsider his policies toward the Palestinians, whose land The State of Israel has been taking for over a hundred years, while killing off as many of their people as possible. He, too, like Putin, will call off all of his dogs, employing them instead in the enormous task of rebuilding Gaza ~ clearing away all the rubble, to start with, and then rebuilding homes, schools, hospitals, power stations, desalinization plants, and everything else he has been destroying so relentlessly for so many years. Of course, he will invite all Palestinians in exile to return to their land to take part in the huge project of replanting their crops and their olive trees, so that the people can eventually recover the means to feed themselves. As in Russia, in Palestine it will be at least decades, probably centuries, before relations between Palestinians and Jews become normalized.
China ~ Shades of Lao Tzu and Confucius will teach Xi Jinping about the Way of Heaven. Abashed and humble, he will immediately liberate Tibet and Hong Kong, release all political prisoners, and send bouquets of roses to Taiwan, with apologies for his earlier unfriendly noises.
The United States ~ I’m afraid it will take more than choirs of angels to show the Donald the errors of his ways. I think we need some heavier guns. For the Donald, the Voice of the Old Testament God will be required to jolt the sick man back to an awareness of his crimes. When he finally recovers from his shock and awe (he can dish it out, but he can’t take it gracefully), he will have a very long agenda ahead of him ~ apologies and reparations to Venezuela, restoration of normal relations with Cuba, and the reversal of just about everything he has done in his wild rampage as President. No one will expect that the last two hundred fifty years of American adventurism will pass harmlessly into history anytime soon, but the start must be made.
And everywhere else in the world, everyone will begin to see the light; old enemies will embrace as brothers (siblings, bristers), and a new world of peace and harmony will supervene over the wreckage of our sorry little planet over here.
Don’t wake me up too soon. Perhaps it will all happen, any day now. I’m ready for a Golden Age. The lion will lie down with the lamb, and they will eat tofu and bean sprouts together.
Golden Age, Claude Lorrain
Curriculum Vitae ~ links about the Author and his work.
