Faith - Easter 2020 - Modern Man

Spring 2020 a spring unlike no other for generation now.

If someone had said a year ago that in Easter 2020 Great Britain would be on lockdown, that the World would be on lockdown! Most would have thought it crazy! Some would have thought it unlikely and few would have been prepared. Yet life now hangs in the balance, every day, as it always has and always will, until the end of days, until the last of us falls.

In the age of Modern Man had we forgotten this?

The whole of society perhaps from top to bottom grew complacent to the battle of life, lessons of the past long forgotten, bad things happen in other lands but not here, they happen to others not to me, they happen to individuals but not to nations, not to populations, not my nation, not my people, not today, not now, later when we are old, after years of long retirement or to a few unlucky ones, but not the many, not the whole, we are safe and secure.

Lessons of life that are known all to well in the third World, the struggle to survive the risk to be alive, the suffering and loss. As the first World quaffed the resources of the land, of all lands, of the entire World, the societies of 1st World Modern Man with technology, medicine and increased human comfort had forgotten the uncertainty of life. Cloaked by the stability of consumerism, of best made plans, our unnecessary products and menial work to produce them shielded us from uncertainty, from pain, from fear, from truth and we all willingly drank from the cup of ignorance, the plastic bottle of comfort and self importance and over time, over lifetimes it enriched no one. Things never got better, only worse, the poor grew poorer and the rich grew richer, yet the mental well being of all reduced and rich or poor people gave up the fight for life and grew depressed and despaired.

The society of Modern Man with blinkers firmly fixed on as the horse near a busy road, head down and taking, head down and consuming, head down and working, head down and eating, head down and drinking, head down and abusing, head down and escaping reality, head down and ignoring the plight of our brothers & sisters, of our fellow beings and our fellow life forms that we share the World with, that exist the World over.

Our ability for love, for compassion, for thought, for reason, for invention & innovation. These things that make us human, which can be so easily focussed to make life better for all of earths creatures for life itself, yet we went in the wrong direction and our actions of ignorance didn't do as we thought "not hurt anyone" they did just that, as we demanded more to fill our consumerist desires we produced more and enslaved more, we took away freedoms of humanity, we destroyed natural landscapes, we polluted the oceans, rivers & skies, we caged life itself, we defied natural laws of the hunter gatherer, we didn't take only what we needed to ensure life & nature could replenish, we took it all, we took everything, we lifted species from their own habitat, farmed and cultured them, took away the joys of life from them and we thought we could carry on taking, taking more and more yet never been filled, casting aside and disposing, throwing away, wasting and buying over and over, causing despair and destroying life until nature took back as it has done before. Nature said no more! The Virus evolves and mutates as a response to the abuse of life, previously isolated to individual local regions to teach lessons to abusive hands, the virus no longer kept at bay by geography instead now set free by our global high speed transit routes. The great leveller, the natural reminder to humanity to say no, not like this, you can't live like this, the black death and great plagues of the past, virus disease & death thriving in poor living conditions, taking a chunk from civilization, from humanity, from life and making it change course for the better. In the aftermath of plague cities burned and reduced to ash to purge the abuse of nature, the abuse of power, the abuse of humanity to force us to change our ways or be removed entirely from the great network of life that spreads our planet.

Yet hope is not lost and if we keep having faith in ourselves, in our leaders, in our abilities, our talent for innovation, love and compassion, as the many struggles before now have been fought and lost & won, we have endured and will endure again. None of us want less, none of us want to struggle, we like our freedoms, we like to have plenty, some have more, some have less, but all should be happy to accept the bottom line if our circumstances dictated, be that human or other species and if we ask ourselves that question and find the answer to be no, then we need to lift that bottom line for all people and species to allow us to say yes.

We can have freedom & plenty and still have balance, we have the ability to make the World however we want it to be and simply giving in and settling for how things are is clearly not in balance with nature and will not be accepted by life itself. Everyday we continue to threaten our own existence through our ignorance and unwillingness to adapt, change & evolve, yet with our Home our World been placed in peril by our own hand we need to change and innovate and we can.

Change starts at home and this Easter 2020 we should all begin that journey as we move from this period of isolation, death and healthcare, we can all have hope that we can begin making a better World, by taking less and consuming responsibly, by considering that our actions have consequences and as with limiting the spread of the virus small changes make the most impact and we know we can do this, we can do anything so long as we have faith.