Longing for the “Seven Generations” Legacy of Hope

I long for a legacy of goodness and hope for all the young people of the world and for those yet to be born. I join with those who seek healing for Mitakuye Oyasin (“all my relations”), as the Lakota people have taught. This is the basis of right relationship to all life.

I have always had hope without blinders on regarding the realities of this world. However, I have believed and experienced also, the uncommon, the miraculous, magical potentials as well. Beauty does not cease, though it may be hidden or fleeting. Though I was a child of the 80’s witnessing everything from Greed to Star Wars, I was also rooted in the land, Narnia and The Muppets. Go ahead and laugh. This is true. One of the first generations brought up with media and television of the new era.

Gathering rocks and witnessing the ant hills that were strangely tall in our fields, making mud pies in solitude with the presence of sun beams on my shoulders, that is when and where I sensed God and, I felt and trusted hope. If you were to peer into my life at that time, at the sheer dynamics of my family, hope would not have been your first thought. Now, decades later, that hope has endured, though not without the despairing valleys. So what, that is the way things go.

I am a hopeful one still. I remember reading dear Anne Frank and how she still believed in the basic goodness of our kind. I reflect on this, because surely, that gift of hope does wane in me now. I have a child. Reading about the plastic vortex in the ocean and the difficulty of retrieving the small particles of broken down plastic and the ramifications of it is a compounded agony, which includes the war, the changing Constitution, and the beginning of a water crisis.

Deep sorrow is appropriate. Outrage is called for. I was crying terribly last night. What a blessing it was to cry to my Husband, whose heart is compassionate, tender and strong.

Hope is being lost. So, my mind and heart crawl to what wisdom I can find, like, “Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is Love.” So, if I lose my hope, Love remains within me and around me. I have no doubt of that. Love is what motivates the agony response to our present world.

There are no Presidential candidates who are addressing issues such as, the plastic vortex crisis in the ocean, the water crisis beginning in our Nation/World, appalling violations of the Geneva Convention, the appalling and anti-life standards in factory farms, the underground slavery/disappearance of children and adults (especially minorities) in this country/in the world who have no rights or protection, the need to close the S.O.A. and holding Government officials accountable for crimes committed and the state of the Constitution, to name a few.

Kucinich is the only person who comes close to being real and true so far in this process. But media treatment and unscientific polls neutralize him. Gore is green, to a good degree, but he’s not running. No one has stood up yet and said,

“Water is the most important issue on this planet. We can’t live without it. If you elect me as your President, I am going to put priority on making clean water available for all people. We are going to make reducing pollution and loss of habitat our priority over corporate greed, convenience, instant gratification. Your lives will have to change. All our lives will, for the good of many hopeful generations to come. We have habits to break. We can no longer be of the ‘throw away’ mentality. We can no longer sprawl and consume to the death. We have many powerful attributes we need to depend on more as Americans and world citizens, such as our ingenuity, inspiration, visionary solutions, profound discernment and a relentless disciplined effort. In securing the health of our home as far as we are capable, we will also make priority the needs of the millions of children living in poverty and violence in this country and in the world. This will lead us to eliminate the contamination of our food chain with inhumane and unhealthy practices that occur in factory farms, in the polluting of agriculture, industry and our own plethora of waste. In fact, any practices that treat any life as an expendable object must cease, that we may lead by example and give evidence of our love for our own life source and our own children. We must also engage our vast global family in concerted efforts to uphold these priorities. The process of peacemaking, hope-making, restoration, if unrelenting in our commitment, holds the promise of resurrection. ‘If not now, when?’”

Well, no Presidential Candidate is giving the Great Speech, or anything like I have offered above. Where are the leaders of great heart and mind, rooted in wisdom, ethics and compassion? And if there is one, such as Kucinich, I will not vote for him, because no one will. The power of democracy is in a strangle hold. The good man is discredited and shot down. Why? Because of his height? Because of his looks? Everyone’s looking for an Alpha male, is that it? Are we just predatory creatures, voting by size, brute force, voice and breeding and nothing else? This is not what the voiceless would choose. This is not for the greater good.

The war is an important topic too. It needs to end. Not accelerate. The troops returning (injured, traumatized) are being left behind by it’s own, it is immoral. The damage done to citizens is more vast than ever. The amount of care and restoration that is already needed here and abroad is enormous on all levels. May we not be overwhelmed. The restoration of our Constitution is quite important as well. What if the next president does not restore the Constitution, but alters it further? What then?

Each day, at the personal level, I, we, must continue to find resolve , to choose love, compassion, perseverance and to live with a sense of responsibility. Each day is an opportunity to find and offer love and healing despite the tempest and the raging. However small my life, I recognize the importance of each life I encounter as beautiful, as a gift, as necessary.

The Sacred is what we, I, seek. The way is challenging and I am often failing. I will try again today.

peace,

C.S.S.

*(Addendum: as of February 4th, 2008, I believe Barack Obama could be the hope for the Nation, he has given a great speech. He has touched on many of the important issues, Let’s see what’s next. Right now, I would vote for him.)