FACING IN THE SAME DIRECTION
Sometimes I wake up with a song, part of a song, or some other bunch of words, sounding over and over in my head. This morning it was:
Fly! Fly!
Rhinoceros, ostrich, Fly!
Mouse, horse, moose, goat,
Fly! Fly!
Giraffe, Fly! Bat, Fly!
Ape, camel, kangaroo,
Fly! Fly!
Fly, All!
For humankind
has appeared upon the earth.
Rather negative, I thought to myself. But justified, thought my other self; we’ve done the planet little good since our arrival upon it.
At which point, another self (there are quite a few, sometimes more than at other times) heaved a huge sigh.
This particular self is the one that's been hanging around most lately. And it is – I could really say “I am” – tired of, weary of, worn down by, the abundance of negativity that is everywhere, like its own kind of pollution.
Don’t get me wrong: I (one of me, at least) can be pretty miserable, angry, frustrated, about what we’re doing to the air, water, earth, plants, animals in our supposed care. And don’t get me started on how we treat each other. Murder, rape, genocide, lying, war, cheating, abuse, prejudice... I mean, the list goes on and on.
Then there’s the vitriol – the hatred, the bias, the cruelty – spouted loudly, often rudely, in the media – mainstream, social, or otherwise – that just doesn’t stop.
Really, I mean, you’d think we hated being alive, hated the planet, hated, well, almost everything.
And then, a few weeks ago, my sigh-heaving self started popping up. Enough, it/I said. Enough negativity. Too much negativity. There is more. We are more. More than our negatives.
And this morning, this self told me to think about Covid. No, not Covid, but Covid vaccines. Vaccinations. The goal of them. So I did. I put aside, for a moment, the nay-sayers, the blame-gamers, price-gougers, et al, and focussed on the goal, and the paths to it.
Around the world, hundreds, thousands, of researchers working madly to develop vaccines. Hundreds of thousands of test subjects, letting themselves be guinea pigs. Then production and distribution on an unprecedented global scale.
Not to mention local logistics all around the world: millions of medical professionals, venue organisers, parking sign-makers, data gatherers and enterers. All on a massive, amazing and until now, unimagined scale.
So that in arenas, pharmacies, market places, community halls, tents, billions of people can be vaccinated.
All this. All these billions of people, from those who only line up for their shots, to those whose minds developed the vaccines, and all those in between, all – all – for a few moments to months, all focussed on the same goal.
And I saw, so clearly, in my mind’s eye, all those billions, all of us facing in the same direction, looking towards, working towards, the same end.
No guns in hand, we’ve lined up, worked, slaved, with our eyes on the same goal. Hiccups? Sure. But I saw us – see us – in our billions, heads raised together.
Just think, said my sigh-heaving self, just think about what humanity could do if a little more often, we all faced in the same direction.
Fly! Fly!
But, together.
Fly! Fly!
Rhinoceros, ostrich, Fly!
Mouse, horse, moose, goat,
Fly! Fly!
Giraffe, Fly! Bat, Fly!
Ape, camel, kangaroo,
Fly! Fly!
Fly, All!
For humankind
has appeared upon the earth.
Rather negative, I thought to myself. But justified, thought my other self; we’ve done the planet little good since our arrival upon it.
At which point, another self (there are quite a few, sometimes more than at other times) heaved a huge sigh.
This particular self is the one that's been hanging around most lately. And it is – I could really say “I am” – tired of, weary of, worn down by, the abundance of negativity that is everywhere, like its own kind of pollution.
Don’t get me wrong: I (one of me, at least) can be pretty miserable, angry, frustrated, about what we’re doing to the air, water, earth, plants, animals in our supposed care. And don’t get me started on how we treat each other. Murder, rape, genocide, lying, war, cheating, abuse, prejudice... I mean, the list goes on and on.
Then there’s the vitriol – the hatred, the bias, the cruelty – spouted loudly, often rudely, in the media – mainstream, social, or otherwise – that just doesn’t stop.
Really, I mean, you’d think we hated being alive, hated the planet, hated, well, almost everything.
And then, a few weeks ago, my sigh-heaving self started popping up. Enough, it/I said. Enough negativity. Too much negativity. There is more. We are more. More than our negatives.
And this morning, this self told me to think about Covid. No, not Covid, but Covid vaccines. Vaccinations. The goal of them. So I did. I put aside, for a moment, the nay-sayers, the blame-gamers, price-gougers, et al, and focussed on the goal, and the paths to it.
Around the world, hundreds, thousands, of researchers working madly to develop vaccines. Hundreds of thousands of test subjects, letting themselves be guinea pigs. Then production and distribution on an unprecedented global scale.
Not to mention local logistics all around the world: millions of medical professionals, venue organisers, parking sign-makers, data gatherers and enterers. All on a massive, amazing and until now, unimagined scale.
So that in arenas, pharmacies, market places, community halls, tents, billions of people can be vaccinated.
All this. All these billions of people, from those who only line up for their shots, to those whose minds developed the vaccines, and all those in between, all – all – for a few moments to months, all focussed on the same goal.
And I saw, so clearly, in my mind’s eye, all those billions, all of us facing in the same direction, looking towards, working towards, the same end.
No guns in hand, we’ve lined up, worked, slaved, with our eyes on the same goal. Hiccups? Sure. But I saw us – see us – in our billions, heads raised together.
Just think, said my sigh-heaving self, just think about what humanity could do if a little more often, we all faced in the same direction.
Fly! Fly!
But, together.