Pilgrims, Peace, and Plastic Straws

This is a day of historical note. Here is the top entry today. In 1620, and I quote: The “Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands for England on their way to America.”

The Pilgrim Fathers. The Fathers, they say. There is an entire history of those Puritans, and how they moved from England to the Netherlands and such. Religious issues, I can assure you. I won’t go into all the oppression here.

My concern is the boat ride. It must have been one hell of a trip, I’ll tell you. And I say this, because ever since that crossing, White, “Christian” men have assumed a gargantuan sense of entitlement here in America. Yes. Ever since.

It started from the very get go. They boarded the boat. They told their good wives and children to be quiet and obey. And they bobbed across the Atlantic for 66 days until they bumped into a big rock on Cape Cod.

There, and then, they puffed out their chests, and never looked back. It was all for the taking. And take they did. They continue to take.

And on this date. The actual today. Things, appear to be running amok.

For instance. The Trump reelection campaign store has sold more than 140,000 plastic “Trump straws,” meant to mock plastic-straw bans, and to do more harm to our environment.

Or this. When I checked the U.S. National Debt Clock this morning, the figure was over $22 Trillion. (As a point of note, we’ve had all White, Male Presidents throughout U.S. History, with the exception of one Black Male President.). The boys have run up quite a tab, I’d say. (Debt Clock: https://www.usdebtclock.org/)

Looking beyond that. Our planet is on fire. Another headline, this morning. “Greenland is melting in a heatwave. That’s everyone’s problem.” This is just one of many headlines lately, about horrendous weather and global conditions which are resulting from Global Warming. Which, according to a LOT of White, Christian Men, does not exist.

Switching gears. I consider myself to be a spiritual person of the conflicted sort. Meaning, mostly, that my “spiritual” self is of great concern to me. I work a lot on this, because I have to. I pay attention to it. I try to meditate, pray, breathe. But I struggle.

This morning, one of my readings said this.

“You are what you think. Think that you are a being of peace and peace will become your personality. Share good news with others. Always have something interesting prepared to share with those you meet. Remember to have a peaceful thought at least once a day.”

It is hard for me to be at peace when the world around us seems to be anything but. Sometimes, I feel like the world is spinning out of control. On the other hand, I believe in trying. I believe in believing. Still. I don’t think we should give up. We can’t give in to the destruction. We can’t start believing that goodness has ended.

Because it hasn’t. I know so many good people to the very core. You, and you. I see it in the things you do and hear it in your voices. I know of good things happening too. They may be small in comparison to the overall picture, but they exist. Little things, in every day.

And so long as there is good in me, and good in you — goodness has a chance of making it. Once and for all.

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“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
― Desmond Tutu

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“It is good people who make good places.”
― Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

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“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

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