(With apologies for a bit of Luna’s jingly background noises, and a few pauses, some possible mispronunciations, and catches in my own reading voice.)
“Knowledge itself is power,” so said Sir Francis Bacon in the year 1597 of the Common Era. Thomas Jefferson repeated the phrase in a campaign to advocate for the creation of state universities. In the modern age Kofi Annan, former Secretary of the United Nations, did the same as he spoke about the need to educate the populations of all nations.
I am a reader. I am educated. I hold degrees and certificates by the shelf-full. I pay close attention to the world. I listen deeply to my beloveds. I pray a lot. Granddaughter tells me, “You know a lot of things.” I guess I do. I know some history and science. I know some theology, mythology, and philosophy. I know a bit about psychology and the human spirit. I know how to make and grow gardens; how to cook healthy, tasty meals; how to preserve, dry, and can foods for the winter. I can make quilts, I can knit and crochet. I have a good vocabulary. I write. I facilitate circles.
I don’t know much about popular culture; it doesn’t entertain or interest me much. I don’t understand higher math well at all. My brain is not wired for it.
I would like to know more about classical and sacred music, herbalism, the theories being explored in physics and cosmology. I would like to learn more about pre-patriarchal cultures. I would love to learn about the matrifocal cultures of ancient Crete, Catalhoyuk (Turkey,) and Fujia (China.)
I am always learning more about regenerative, organic gardening. I want to travel to the ancient cathedrals of Europe; I want to visit the Renaissance art housed in Europe’s great museums. I’m not sure how possible either of those two things are going to be for the foreseeable future; time will tell.
I can see where the world is heading in the short term; it is not pretty. I can see what of my gifts and skills will probably become more important than any of those degrees or certificates getting dusty in their folders on my bookshelves.
I can see that people are afraid. I can see that people afraid of losing something they believe they are entitled to (a way of life, a system that has worked fairly well for them, a belief about themselves, an institution they care about, etc.) are easily led into angry violence against their sisters and brothers by those practiced in illusion, division, and the casting elsewhere of blame.
Classic diversionary tactics are being used everywhere right now. Looking at the outrageous violence over there in Venezuela, Minneapolis, and Portland keeps us from seeing the more systemic, foundational, violence being done to our imperfect and hard-won freedoms by the men behind the curtains. Those (mostly) men (and a few obedient women) are stealing our rights as we stare at the flickering lights in our living rooms and the screens that now fit into our palms.
Maybe I know a few things. I know when something smells off. I know right from wrong, love from hate, fear from courage, a corpse from a living being. I know when we are being lied to and manipulated. I know what we are losing, and the terrible-future we have sold our freedoms to gain. I know what it is like to be hated, and to be loved; to be blamed, and to be thanked; to be a leader, and a servant leader; to stand vulnerable in the face of anger, fear, and violent words and not strike back. I am old enough now to have lived through all these things and more.
What little I know this morning is that truth lives on just behind the projections of the human world. What I know is that Love dissolves those illusions if we choose it. Love brings Life; illusions bring only death and decay. It’s our choice. There will be consequences either way.
Courage my dears. Love one another.
