Mystical Morning

The fog graced the mill pond behind my house this morning when I awoke. Warm air of spring rolling in, pulling the water free from ice and snow, breathing life back into an all-too-cold atmosphere. The whole drive along Route 117 this morning colored by these processes. The Sudbury River exhumes a wafting cloud of fog, impenetrable by the sun shining on either side. To the north, a cloud is wafting up from the Concord and Assabet rivers. Water runs and everything follows. The buckets are are now firmly attached to the ancient maple trees at the bottom of the driveway where I work. Water runs and sap runs. The evolutionary practice of loosing leaves to protect themselves from the weight of snow reverses direction this week. The light during the day tells the plants to begin drawing up their sugars and start powering up the buds. If the maples are at it, so are the oaks and the hickory, the pine and the hemlock. In a few weeks, the faint suggestion of green and red and auburn, as newborn leaves pop out into the world ready to take their turn in the season ahead, will highlight the edges of our forests and enliven our world. New life from apparent death. These next few weeks are precious. The last view of the bare forest until next winter. The miracle of spring is upon us.

And against the persistence of life, the tenaciousness of spring, I hold the ubiquitous yellow ribbon, our present symbol of death. Our present desire to embrace carnage. Why must we support our troops? I wonder, wincing slightly knowing the kind of rage this question may evoke. Are soldiers not themselves composed of minds? Are their minds not themselves capable of discerning right from wrong, truth from lie? Are they to be held to lower standards than the rest of us? I do not believe a single American should die for this misguided cause in Iraq, but I also do not believe that blindly supporting an immoral and unethical cause helps them. Shall we reward people for following orders? At what point is questioning appropriate? If this were Germany 1939, would anyone argue the same sentiments (I'm sure they did)? "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or even in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator?" Thoreau asked in "Civil Disobedience." He opposed the United States' first act of imperialism, the invasion of Mexico in 1945. The question still holds today, as a new century of imperialism begins. This government acts on behalf of its citizens, and its citizens do not take such responsibility seriously. They would rather have their SUV's and low gas prices and full supermarkets and choices of consumables from all around the world, than to choose to live in harmony with their true conscience, and in harmony with their true family of beings, and in harmony with their true home place, Earth. I would like to throw out all the silly yellow magnets and replace the administration's evil catchphrase with something truly compelling: Support the Truth. That would be a nice beginning.