As they sat near their fire the night closed in, both lost in their thoughts.
The stars, stunning in their beauty, overwhelming in their mysteries, appeared in great numbers and brightness.
The shaman, deep in thought suddenly said.“ I believe the stars are spirits, great spirits each alone, taken together holding the fabric of all that there is.”
“Some say they are worlds unto themselves,”…the explorer offered.
“Whatever they are, they are great,”answered the shaman.
The idea that we as Americans have the right to violently impose our way of life on others, to destroy other cultures, killing and maiming in the process - the belief that our way of life is more important than life itself embarrasses in its primitiveness and alarms in the immense dangers embedded in its stupidity. The idea that we and we alone have the right to such decisions in the midst of this vast universe is not simply wrong, it is untenable. One has only to look up at night to understand the shame of such narrow, egocentric thinking. We are surrounded by an immensity we can’t even imagine. In your minds eye stand back from this small fragile globe, take it in its entirety as it floats in vacuum and realize its fragility, its smallness, and how utterly alone we are against immense forces. Realize this and ask then what is important.
Life. We are nothing except as nurturers of life.
Once that is understood, really understood – all thoughts of narrow, nationalistic, political, economic and cultural centralism become embarrassingly primitive.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by our hands since we first invaded in 2003. So many innocent lives – babies, children, innocents calling to us from their graves, their cries revealing so much anguish. They call to us to cast doubt on our ideologies, greed and narrowness of mind. We must listen. The loss of their lives has diminished us all and a great sadness befalls. We are murdering our own – fellow humans on this tiny fragile earth – and for what?
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