I awoke and got up early today as I have been doing recently these lovely summer mornings. I caught the first golden sunrays as brightness crept over the hill and the nighttime darkness slipped away.
It’s a new morning, a new day. I make it all mine to enjoy and to share with the ones I love.
The peaceful stillness of the bright clear morning seems to bring a new and special perspective to life and the world around you. This is a fresh new unit of time to do with what you will. Especially so if you’ve gotten up early before most everyone else. You have a head start.
You get the feeling that perhaps you can instill your own unique touch of magic in this day to make it stand out for everyone else also.
I just realized that I’m alternating between the first and second person here (I and you).
I guess its like saying “Do you know what I mean? Can you see it as I do? Isn’t it really something?”
So we begin this day by waking up and opening our eyes. The material world around us comes back into focus, proper shape and present time reality. Our nighttime dream world fades off into a fog of oblivion.
There’s regular morning routine - bathroom, coffee, family activity as well as news, trivia, advertising and gossip from electronic media.
Many other entities attempt to project their two cents into your space and time. “Hey look at this. Look here. Pay attention to me”.
But it’s your day, your own creation to experience and live through. You feel as though it’s your own personal universe and everyone else is merely along for the ride.
However, you enjoy having passengers along on your journey. You have people to talk to, entertain and be entertained by. A hearty laugh and a spirited argument, an exchange of ideas and opinions, these add spice and drama to your daily routine.
Outside and beyond your sphere of existence is the opening bell of the markets. There’s the latest sports news. There is the feuding, accusations and scandals of Congress. There are the wars and rumors of wars in the Middle East and other trouble spots of our world.
Well we are off and running in what looks like another day at the races as the media attempts to guide and direct us.
But, as always, plane crashes, shootings and tragedies are highlighted in what we have come to accept as news of the day.
The existence of joy, happiness and general wellbeing barely if ever gets a mention.
Neither does the dawning of such a unique and special beautiful new day.
So in our world, as well as you and I, we also have “Them”, that dreaded third person. It’s that object we can point our finger at claiming it’s the source of all our trouble
I know I’m alright and you too may well be okay in your own way. That is if I can look you in the eye and share a smile. I can talk, hopefully reason and come to an understanding in a meaning personal relationship with you.
But then there’s that impersonal, collective, fearful mass we call “Them”. You know who they are - the government, the Congress, the opposing political party. And the list continues.
It’s so easy to look at “Them” as the evil entity pitted against you and intent on messing up your life.
Oh hey. What is this? We started off enjoying the beauty and freshness of a brand new day. Now we have stooped down low, locked horns and engaged in battle with “Them”.
Do you think, could it be possible, could that faceless mass actually be made up of I’s and you’s? (First and second person individuals).
There is a country we have recently set our sights on and labeled the cause of all our problems. It’s the one we are ready to attack and bomb back into the stone age, But isn’t it made up and populated by moms and dads and loving children wanting to live a simple peaceful life?
Aren’t they a lot like you and I?
Couldn’t they be ordinary people just waking up and greeting this same beautiful new morning?
Dan O’Connor can be reached at danhughoconnor@gmail.com
