"THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US; LATE AND SOON"
THE
world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting
and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little
we see in Nature that is ours;
We
have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The
Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The
winds that will be howling at all hours,
And
are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For
this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It
moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A
Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So
might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have
glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have
sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or
hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
---William
Wordsworth 1806.
Today
I had a conversation with someone who said that she had stopped
watching the news on TV or even following it on the Internet. The
news for her was too unrelievedly filled with humanity's cruelty and
meanness. For her own mental and spiritual health, she found it
necessary to tune out the overwhelming and incessant bleakness of our
times. I told her I found it necessary to do something of the
same—where I used to watch the news religiously every evening, I
now often turn instead to something that has a little love in it.
For me it comes down in the end to this—there is so little to
nothing I can do about most “world events” that I have come to
concentrate on events in my own microcosm. Somehow I have been given
faith that if I and others concentrate on limited areas where our
actions have some hope of making a positive difference, then that is
where we should place our focus and concentrate our efforts to effect
change. I may not be able to control everything or even very much,
but at least in my own life and in the lives I touch daily, I have
some hope—even confirmed assurance—that I can make a meaningful
difference.
For
me it's much like if I find I have a big project to do. En mass it
can be overwhelming and I am tempted to avoid grappling with it at
all. Yet, when I say to myself, “to begin I will focus on some
small aspect of the project—something that is readily doable;”
then by degrees I can build up momentum to tackle more unwieldy
aspects of the task.
Perhaps
initially the evening news gave me a delusional sense of power as I
watched in synopsis the world unfold before me (in half an hour); now
I realize that though mass communication is readily available, it
does not imply that my responsibility to be informed brings with it
any legitimate necessity for me to control or intervene in
everything.
Deep
within my brain the stark graphics on the screen implant that I
must take immediate and effective action—something more often than
not quite impossible to do. This results in an enervating daily
emotional overload—tending to render me ineffective not only in the
world, but even in my own home. While no one should think it is wise
to bury one's head in the sand, neither should we pretend that mere
exposure implies that we have competence to correct every abuse we
see on screen now brought incessantly to us in the intimacy of our
study or bedroom. Perhaps due to the way our brains are wired, we
will never be totally let off the hook without a degree of quite
intentional and willful callousness. The trick is not let this
necessary coping mechanism corrupt our responses even in those areas
where we do have abundant and sufficient power to make a decisive
difference.
Let
there be Peace on Earth: The Choirboys
Let
there be peace on earth,
and
let it begin with me.
Let
there be peace on Earth,
the
peace that was meant to be.
With
God as our Father,
We
are family,
Let
us walk with each other,
in
perfect harmony.
Let
peace begin with me,
let
this be the moment now.
With
every step I take,
let
this be my solemn vow,
To
take each moment and live each moment
in
peace, eternally.
Let
there be Peace on Earth,
and
let it begin with me.
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