Post No. 52: I Hear the Carolers Sing

This time of year is a special time.  The dark comes earlier giving us more time for reflection.  Last week I attended a Christmas (Holiday) concert with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Princeton choir.   There were incredibly talented solo tenor and solo mezzo soprano singers.  The orchestra with its stringed instruments, horns, trumpets, cymbals and majestic voices at times transported one to a soaring, higher dimension that transcends all our concerns and worries.   Perhaps this gave a glimpse of what Jesus meant when he said “I bring a peace beyond understanding”.   Yet this does not last long and we often revert back to our self-interested selves as we navigate our very complicated human society.  This has been the case for all of human history.  Are we getting better at it?  It might not seem so, but if one studies Ancient Greek, Roman and Persian history, we have learned some lessons.  One might not agree if the twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries are any indication.  Yet we make progress - 2 steps forward and 1.9 steps backwards.

Most do not realize it, but we only think we are separate selves apart from one another.  This delusion is essential to function in our human society.  At the same time, a deep realization that we only create the illusion of separateness, can lead to a more harmonious society.   Jesus saw this with such depth that it led others to the mystery of Christian faith (with a little help from Constantine).   I wish all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday this season.   If you hear the carolers sing, I hope you are transported to new dimensions, as I was.  Enjoy the poem:

I HEAR THE CAROLERS SING

Sometimes I despair

Are hostilities inevitable

Is it how we’re made

Me and mine matter most?

History offers small comfort

Europe, Asia, Africa, Americas

No place has been spared

From self-interest and conflict

Ancient Greece, Rome, Persia

Constant wars and conflict

Pursuing power and wealth

Driven by fear of other

Because we’ve a better way

Our nation and ideology

A lethal combination

Justifying violence

Not just the ancient world

It continues unbroken

Into our current times

Has anything changed?

Technology is more lethal

Involving combatants

And civilians alike

Threatening earth’s end

Is there reason to hope

Can we find some trend

That offers an opening

For the sun to shine through?

Religion stays in its lane

People of all stripes

Are accepted not rejected

A lesson learned

Our values have changed

Even if there are disputes

Meritocracy and diversity

We try to get it right

Violence is seen as cruel

Especially if done to us

We justify our invasions

Condemn the other ones

Yet we keep trying

This too is how we’re made

We’re just being human

Wanting to figure it out

Despite all the messiness

Domestic and international

Progress is forward, not back

I see what we have, not lack.

Please take heart this season

And hear the carolers sing

And the trumpets herald:

Joy to the World