From the Poem ‘DOVER BEACH’ by Mathew Arnold.
“Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
I believe this beautiful but sad poem, the last stanza of which is shown above, describes the human condition perfectly. I would urge you to read the whole poem which fits on one page. You can find it on Wiki!
A photograph of Dover Beach is shown above. Note the pebbles.
Cheers.
There is joy, love and light to be found in the way we care and nuture each other.
It is a sad and beautiful poem and ignorant armies are surely clashing, but many people still find ways to make life beautiful.
Still, way to many find ways to do harm and make life a nightmare for millions. They are often the ones who seem to be winning.
Reply
David G Reply:
September 24th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Jeannie, of course we can find positive things if we look for them but, overall, the scenario is much as Arnold describes.
As you read this American armies are killing people, people are being tortured and rendered, people are starving, being stoned to death, being blown up by drones, children are being molested by clerics, women are being raped, children are being pushed into the sex trade, people are having their limbs hacked off and disfigured, etc.
It’s hard to be happy knowing these terrible things are happening.
Reply
coco Reply:
September 25th, 2010 at 12:32 am
It’s hard to be happy knowing these terrible things are happening
that’s true david, but i think we should maintain some degree of reality in life. we cannot help these unfortunates and to be contstantly sad or depressed about it will not solve their problem. we who visit your site and comment show that we care about the world we live in. but we are the minority. the majority have been fooled into believing something else. and you are aware as all your commenters too, that majority rules. we are a small blip on the horizon and of no consequence to the powers that be. whereas i feel and relate to the victims of our so called civilization, i also realize there isn’t much i can do about it. so in order to allieviate my impotence with relation to the bigger picture, i do things that help the immediate society i live in. (and once on a much grander scale) i do believe things are coming to a head and with all the economic/climate/resources/food challenges we are facing i don’t think we will have to worry about it for much longer. of course, it’s a crying shame that we couldn’t live in a ‘utopia’ that was probably quite possible. the seven deadly sins overtook us…………………..
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David G Reply:
September 25th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Coco, thanks for your wise comment. Change what you can and enjoy what you can is sensible advice which I also try to follow but sometimes the reality of the world gets me down a bit.
Perhaps I should retreat to a monastery but, could I trust the other monks?
Jeannie Reply:
September 25th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
I can’t save the world. I can’t stop the wars and the killings, I can’t stop rape and children being exploited, I can’t stop the drones from flying. I can’t feed all the hunger people in the world all I can do is donate regulary to my local food bank. I can only do my best to live as responsibly as I can, caring for and nuturing those I love and trying to find ways to help those who are suffering even though what I can do is so small and insignificant it does not seem to mean much.
After that I will try to find all the joy I can in this world! My feeling sad and depressed will help no one! Does that sound selfish? Maybe it is. Coco got it right.
Reply
David G Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Great comment, Jeannie! If we had a world full of people like you, earth would be a great place to be living in!