Somewhere down the line we let ourselves get sidetracked. Things started off pretty well, they even managed to look good for a while longer but then, as always, our frailties took over. We coveted, we plotted and we purloined. Pandora had managed to unleash seven vague diableries, we managed to multiply that another seventy fold with pretty specific creations of our own. And while she mourned for her failure and for humanity, we gloated over ours with impunity. We disguised our failures with false ideals and ended up more miserable than ever before.
Maybe our punishment for the fallacy of Babel was more severe than rightfully deserved; might not a simple admonishment from an angry but loving Father to His errant children have been sufficient to put us back on track? Perhaps if we had the original gift to understand each other, we would not have wavered off so much. To err is human, to forgive divine… there’s officious reverberation in this oft quoted but long forgotten verse out of the depth of my racial memory ten thousand years old. I’m not blaming anyone, let alone God, only questioning His refusal to help us when we most needed guidance and support. We were never created just for tending sheep and singing hymns.
So is that my excuse for humanity? Probably not; besides, its not likely to hold up in the one court that matters. I am not here to make excuses, I’m not smart enough for that. I can’t trust myself to speak correctly on my own behalf let alone for humanity. But I do think that things have become wretched enough to warrant reevaluation of our strategies and their perceived advantages for victory or vindication. There are situations, and always have been, where everyone wins just as sure as there are even more situations when there are no winner, only losers. Vengeance is the undisputed leader of the latter category.
In my opinion, lack of proper education is more responsible for our evils than any other detrimental antecedent. And this is a war that cannot be won with force. There is no force strong enough to combat obtuse indoctrination since neither the source nor the outcome are subject to any form of prediction or extrapolation. The flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil brings about a typhoon in China. But if the butterfly was enlightened to the plight of humanity by its actions, its more likely to be convinced to flap its wings and create rain for the Sahara. But it would take the concerted efforts of many enlightened butterflies to achieve that.
Yes, maybe we were wrong about Babel and a million other things, but that’s just who we are. The right to be wrong is intrinsic to our humanity. Let the One who scattered us judge us. What is then my Christmas wish? For me, more than at any other time in the history of mankind, the wish for Christmas is the gift of forgiveness. Not just for one person or one people, but for every human and every people who can look up at the sky and wonder if they are really qualified to judge on their Creator’s behalf without prejudice or favor.
Leave a Reply