April 2008
The Wheel of Time makes another revolution and voilà, it’s April again. April probably more than any other month has been the recipient of the lauds of poets and songsters. It is a month of hope and promise. Fishing season begins in April and that alone would suffice for celebration. I expect that this month my bicycles will emerge from their hibernation and again roll upon the hills and dales of greater Concord. Life begins anew; not that it ever really abandoned us but new blooms and buds and growth of all kinds manifest and illustrate that Life does indeed abide. It is vanity alone that lets us think that humankind is in fact the very purpose and end of creation. Perhaps a new and more enlightened creature will someday evolve; perhaps he/she will be better able to bring about and realize the Kingdom of God. We certainly have not done a very good job of it.
The three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) promote peace, justice and loving kindness. And yet we seem no closer to the ideal than when our kind lived in caves and in the trees. If anything, we’re further removed because our technologies wreak havocs that our ancestors couldn’t even dream of.
April symbolically suggests that maybe, just maybe, things could be different. Five years into the criminal Iraq war and the cost estimate in money is about three trillion dollars. That’s a number most of us cannot even begin to grasp. And we cannot afford universal health care. We cannot afford to feed the hungry or house the homeless, but we can afford to wage a war no one wants to wage? Is it any wonder that our economy is tanking when we’re spending billions every month to fight this illegal war? The same dollars invested in our children and grandchildren’s futures would be a better expenditure.
April with all its imagery of rebirth, resurrection and new life suggests that there is another chance to get it right. May we be among the anointed who finally get it right.
Amitiés and love,
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