In her autobiography, Dust Tracks On A Road,
Zora Neale Hurston, with no disrespect to organized Religion,
states that-
"It is simply not for me…
The springing of the yellow line of morning out of the misty deep of dawn,
is glory enough for me."
Amen!
Photo, Crescent Beach, © Laine Quinn 2018, sunrise.
The hungry, greedy, insatiable snake,
eating its own tail
has gotten to the head.
What will he do next?
Laine Quinn
Ecola
I walked by the sea-creek side.
The wind laughed, the gulls cried.
Sweet water lapped on the salt sand
between the deep sea and the deep land.
Ursula K. LeGuin
Years ago, Joseph Campbell told us that the poets would save us.
I begin to understand.
From Ursula K LeGuin's book of poems, "Late in the Day."
Joseph Campbell, in his series, "The Power of Myth."
Photo of St. Augustine Beach, ©2020LaineQuinn
It might seem incredulous
that there were peaceful, cooperative, undefended cities in so called prehistory.
But go back as recently as 1492, when Columbus sailed across the Atlantic
in search of a route to China and India.
Luckily for him and his crew,
there was land in between,
and after nearly 3 months of sailing,
they landed in what he named Hispaniola, in the Bahamas.
*"The Indians," Columbus reported,
"are so naive and so free with their possessions
that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it.
When you ask for something they have, they never say no.
To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone."
How he and his men responded to these handsome, well built people
who carried no weapons,
is shameful and obscene.
And thus began the conquest of the Americas,
spreading the European model of power and tyranny like a disease.
We are the descendants of these warring people
who believed in a winner take all mentality.
We are also the descendants of the peaceful, generous people,
who loved nature and life.
We can set our sights on making more and more powerful and accurate weapons.
Or we can set our sights on technologies that support life
and can turn back the clock on certain environmental collapse.
Love will get us there and respect –
for each other and for the world we live in.
Let's let our better angels have their day once again.
*From Howard Zinn's, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1492 – PRESENT.
When you have peaceful, cooperative cities
that are unfortified:
no walls or fortresses –
that have not developed weapons of death:
there was no need for those things,
as their neighbors were friendly –
and violent warring tribes from the surrounding arid lands
invade and destroy everything in their path,
installing their vengeful, jealous gods to displace the nurturing goddess –
things change.
And they change dramatically and violently and relatively quickly.
1,000 or 2,000 years to undo 30,000 years
of human development.
In her book, The Chalice and the Blade,
Eisler makes the case that patriarchy and its elevation
of war and fear and power over others
is an anomaly,
a blip on the evolutionary screen.
The Pale Blue Dot
View from Voyager, Earth as seen from deep space. NASA
It's a detour off the path of human development.
A mistake that needs correction.
That must be corrected.
Photo of the Earth from deep space. APOD "ThePaleBlueDot"
Astronomy Picture of the Day, February 14th 2020.
"Our hopes for peaceful human coexistence are not,
as we are so often told, utopian dreams."
Riane Eisler
Peaceful cooperation existed long, long ago and set the foundation for civilization.
Human HISTORY OURSTORY goes back 30,000 years.
In most early societies technologies were developed
that supported and enhanced
the quality of life.
Otherwise what might have become of us?
These were cooperative societies,
with both men and women working together for the common good.
30,000 years of improving life for all.
Over millennia, these early societies developed farming,
fishing, the domestication of animals,
weaving, and even town planning.
The arts flourished.
As a result of that cooperative living,
10,000 years ago – thriving, complex city states were abundant in the fertile Mediterranean Basin.
Yes, these were "gynocentric, or woman-centered societies,
with the deity represented in female form,
symbolizing the generative, nurturing and creative powers of nature."
These peoples, our ancestors, lived close to nature and the stars
and had great respect for all life.
Was it a matriarchy? Not in the sense of being opposite to patriarchy.
These were egalitarian cultures that bestowed equal value on all citizens.
"A partnership society,
in which neither half of humanity is ranked over the other
and diversity is not equated with inferiority or superiority."
Everyone is King of the Hill!
(Queen, Princess, Prince and Spot!)
Of the Hill!
Quotes are from the amazing book, The Chalice and the Blade, Our History, Our Future, extensively researched and written by Riane Eisler in 1987.
The word obscene in Greek Tragedies meant that the action took place off scene,
behind the curtain, because it was too terrible to actually depict on stage.
I've gone back 100 years to shake up the past and improve our lives.
Going back farther one is confronted with obscene brutality.
Imperialism – the way of the world –
an arrogance and entitlement that justified horrible acts of murder,
slavery and abuse on all levels.
Anyone perceived as different, inferior, or threatening,
and women and children of all stripes were dispatched or used with impunity.
Four thousand years of that arrogance landed in the Americas.
Spanish, French and English fought fiercely for the rights of a land already occupied.
And finally, the newly minted Americans were the victors,
and ran over the continent and her people without conscience.
King of the Hill…
whoever gets to the top makes the rules and breaks the rules and changes the rules.
They tell the story, HISstory,
not OURstory.
We still live under this archaic model
of might makes right
and the person with the most gold is King.
But, it was not always this way.
There is an older way.
A Peaceful way.
Long, long ago…
More tomorrow…
Re-enactor, St. Augustine.
…It''s about my journey going from a liberal civil rights lawyer
who was tinkering with the machine,
and believed that we could somehow get the to the Promised Land
if we just filed the next best lawsuit,
or met the the governor,
or organize the right number of people for the next protest,
to someone who now believes that much more revolutionary change is required,
and it's not simply a political revolution.
A moral and spiritual revolution is also required of us now.
This is what is required of us to begin to treat each person decently,
with respect and love
and by extension,
the earth and all aboard her.
*(Author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness",
talking about her new book.)
Photo of Tropical Day Flower and Dragonfly, ©2013 Laine Quinn
Taken at Longwood Gardens, in Delaware.
So,
in my alternate universe…
There was no degradation of the earth.
Clean Air.
Clean Water.
No lies, no wars in the oil rich Middle East, no lives lost.
The U.S. military would be doing what it is charged with-
protecting Democracy,
not dismantling it worldwide.
Cancer would still be a rare disease,
not the Big Business that it is today.
Our Government by the people, and for the people would stand by the people,
and not the greedy aggressive corporations that have given us this dystopia.
Family Farms would have been protected,
and the Giant Agri-Business would never have been allowed.
Our food would be wholesome and delicious-
the soil rich in nutrients-
bees would thrive.
And the peacemakers never would have been assassinated,
and they would have led the way to peace and prosperity for all people.
"You might say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one."
John Lennon
©2020 Laine Quinn, Earth Flag, Home!
John Lennon Quote from the song "Imagine"
Gleanings From Living Long
Lainesblog Thinking Out Loud 