The Modern Era

A few days ago I wrote here about the 1^st Axial Age, the name given to the time in history when humanity made a major leap ahead, a change in consciousness that brought scattered humanity—each in unique ways—to lay the foundations for civilization that still serve us today.

The modern era necessitates another axial change wherein humanity comes to embrace a new consciousness of what and who we are.  We’ve seen ourselves from outer space—earth as one small interconnected interacting unit.   We must come to realize that what happens to one part effects the whole.  We can no longer choose war; we are One world threatened with self-destruction. 

We were given a planet in which to create a world according to our choice.  Little by little, with glory and strife, we came together to become a global world; we have yet to realize our oneness.  May we in our lifetime experience humanity's rise in consciousness.

                                                                          - - -

        

 I repeat an earlier poem from my blog of 10/15/13

POTENTIAL

I believe in human potential--

     Man can be more than he is

     if armed with the will to become.

I see the inherent dangers--

     Power can either create or destroy

     so knowledge of it awakens fear.

I know of quantitative quality--

     That which can be expressed positively

     can likewise be expressed negatively.

     I look to civilization’s development

          - the taming of fire

          - the mastery of communication

          - the understanding of order

          - the creation of beauty

          - the invention of systems

          - the development of industry

          - the perfection of technology

     Laced with wars, tyranny, slavery, holocaust, bigotry, treason, genocide...

     This is my heritage, my lineage, my ancestry;

     It all came before me and is mine because I am!

     This awareness engenders painful ambivalence;

     Majesty and pride joust with horror and shame.

     All this is because of human potential;

     Our being has changed the face of the earth.

     Man has traveled to the moon

     And he has created Auschwitz and Dachau.

               Are we gods or demons?

     The more we refine our being

     the more aware we become of its flaws.

     Ignorance once hid from us our vast potential;

     Yet once glimpsed, that image holds the mind in bondage.

     Reality forces us to live with the less that is

     while desperately longing for the more beyond reach.

Now, together, we are called to create a better world--      

     The negatives are painfully real

     but somewhere, somehow, progress happens.

Truth demands we acknowledge our potential's full range

     without abnegating the responsibility;

     --each person's choices help shape the future.