"Some of us feel that if just fifty-one percent of the
global population began emanating
happiness, the rest of us would naturally follow suit…
"The opportunity for every consciously responsible
person to begin thinking, talking, praying, and meditating for world peace and
salvation has always existed. Perhaps it is only now that the potential for
lasting change has fully presented itself to our wakening psyches. We are on
the threshold of creating a world with unlimited potential and a life of
unconditional love. It is well within our power to do so, if we only
acknowledge it. So let us start paving the way for the 'new' order of being -
that which we always intended from the beginning - but simply forgot."-- Timothy Lynch
in "From Immanence to Transcendence:
The Missing Link and Creative Evolution"
oh, you know them
they're the ones who laugh at,
make small change,
out of victims
& say you brought
your latest episode of victimhood
on yourself
you see how they take
vicarious thrill from shrill tv news
aired each evening & find
the misfortunes,
the up-ended lives of others
the stuff of gossip's glee over dinner
gee, am i glad it isn't me,
they assure themselves nightly
before they turn in
you have to hand it to them
they're convinced theirs is the right way,
yeah, the upright life, as far right
in the spectrum as you can get
& maybe they might be right
& you're wrong, always wrong,
even when wronged
when you fall victim
to others who prey
on the weak, the unaware,
there is no mercy
or consolation granted
that by the grace of their god
you got home intact
the casting of blame is still
on you who doesn't know
how to take care of yourself
as well & as expertly as they do,
you who to their mind doesn't
share the wealth of their neat
orderly predictable lives
that marks their mortal days
it's a life that says there is no life
& silently you take it all
on the chin
so whether you were raped as a child
molested by someone
assigned a care-giver's role
beaten within an inch of your life
abused
controlled
by all types of authority figures
called names
humiliated in front of those you hold dear
the unknowing feast
of snatchers & thieves
& others less than human
to the 49 percent
these things hardly matter
for, unlike them,
you never quite learned
to shrug things off
& get on with what is considered
primarily a business
yes, business-as-usual living
out there up there
in a vague promise of a somewhere
is a life of no business
a region with the faint
possibility
of scars cleansed,
constant woundings halted,
one where you're not gauged
by your net worth after
taxes,
after banal banditry,
after banal banditry,
after national thievery
after after
thelifeafter
--Babeth Lolarga
Upper photo: Cemetery of Negativity, Camp John Hay, Baguio City, taken by the author in 2005
Lower image: watercolor of Mount Santo Tomas in Northern Philippines
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