What Can We Do? — A Prose Poem
(A Reverie, Part Two of Two)
by Timothy Thompson
In the silent still coolness of the night when the heat of the day’s bombardments have begun to smolder and we are gratefully, blissfully at rest – what neurons trigger their synapses within our brains to release their loads of chemical reality? What energies transform themselves into the dreamscapes of our flickering consciousness? What indigo timelessness do we return to like lovers snuggling under the blankets? What renewals does the body sing out to the rhythmic heartbeat of our being? Are we particles in a stew of biological collectives or waves in the relentless tides of unfathomable gravities?
Some of us paint pictures with pigments, some with numbers, some with music, some with words, some not at all. If we do not give ourselves – even occasionally – the opportunity to explore the uniqueness of our talents and passions, how then can we understand when it is time to show love and compassion?
No doubt about it, we are a blend of the physical, the mental-emotional and the spiritual. As human beings we owe it to ourselves – indeed, we owe it to the universe – to use as much of our individual and collective uniqueness and creativity as possible in the service of life here on planet Earth. When we neglect any part of ourselves and our human culture, we lose the spark of our divine origins and sink back into hopelessness and despair.
What can we do to fulfill our own greatest potential?
As individuals we can grow.
One of the perpetual facets of our individuality is that we never stop growing. We grow through the various stages of life, seeking out relationships, accomplishing our tasks and engaging in things that define who we are as individuals. We never stop learning. The moment we begin to know it all, we begin to die. The body learns new ways of expressing its physicality, the mind conquers new challenges, and the heart forms new bonds with ever greater depth and meaning.
Individual growth is significant and pervasive within each one of us. Sometimes we forget that and it seems like nothing in our lives ever changes, that we are the same today as we were yesterday, that the only difference between our youth and our maturity is a matter of degree not the altering landscapes of our creations.
As individuals we believe in individual uniqueness and often lose sight of which piece of the puzzle we help fill in.
As a society we can relate to each other.
Like individuals, societies have their own set of challenges as well as their triumphs. Societies come and go over many generations of individuals. When individuals are long forgotten, the accomplishments of a society live on. On the path from individuality to collective identity, social structures are created and destroyed that seek to accommodate both the separate components of and the entire system of the society itself.
Like individuals, societies may be well-meaning but misguided. They may be fair or unfair, generous or selfish. Where societies and individuals really begin to differentiate is in the ways that they relate to each other. The rules and conventions that govern social groups interactions with each other are necessarily more serious and less flexible than most individual interactions.
Societies must learn not only to relate to their individual members but also to other societies as well.
As a world we can coordinate our efforts.
It is said that human beings inhabit the world but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that human being inhabit their own body-minds whereas societies truly inhabit the world. social structures like nations respond to planetary conditions and set massive goals for themselves that go far beyond the individual’s relevance to resources, timelines, evolution and history.
This has become sometimes painfully obvious as we enter into an age of worldwide interconnections. It demands an entirely new way of managing things, including the needs of individuals and societies. At this level, everything requires a high degree of coordinated communication, allocation, development and oversight.
The world must take responsibility – for everyone and everything.
Originally published online for Dream Manifesto in 2010.
