It’s Saturday morning here atop the scenic high desert. I’m sitting at my desk staring at this blank sheet of paper and I’m wondering what I might possibly come up with as a theme for my weekly scribble.
I know I should just start. Hesitation only gums up the works. Once I have a couple of lines written down then I find my thoughts start to flow, my remaining two brain cells kick into gear and I’m off and running.
Well good morning dear reader and how are you? How are you managing with this dreadful Summer heat?
I’ll try not to go on and on about the drought, the war, the markets, inflation, recession, etc. in this issue. You can find more than enough of all that emanating from your TV.
Also, if I were to get into it, I might not be mindful enough to avoid the things we should not mention and subjects we should not bring up lest they offend someone in our politically correct society.
But on the alternative or flip side from that perspective, there’s a whole wide beautiful world out there that sadly so often goes unnoticed. Like the joy you see in the eyes of a child, the bouncing of a puppy dog with the affectionate wagging of its tail and the ever so sweet morning song of a little bird; this is what I mean.
This, to me, is the real world around us that we so often take for granted and ignore. This is also the polar opposite of war, hatred and aggression.
All we need do to counterbalance the horrors we are shown daily on our media is to view them in contrast with the real day to day world around us. The basic goodness and kindness of our friends, family and neighbors outweighs multiple times the evils portrayed over and over on our broadcast networks.
The joyous sounds of fun and laughter coming from a playground, the cheers and enthusiasm of friendly sports competition to be heard at a local ball game, smiles from pretty girls, people greeting by your first name and happy to see you; this is also what I mean.
There is kindness, love and well-being unlimited to be found all over on this beautiful blue green orb of ours as it drifts slowly through the cosmos.
We, individual units of a human lifeforce sometimes appear to me to resemble tiny fireflies. We each bring our own personal spark of light to brighten up an otherwise inert, solid, material world. We want to paint this world of ours with vivid pretty colors, green fields, brilliant blue sky with white puffy clouds, shimmering lakes of deep blue, mountain peaks covered with snow and vast expansive oceans with ever rolling waves.
I could continue on with birds in the trees, bees, butterflies and flowers, crops in the fields, sunshine, wind and rain and hope for an even better tomorrow, but I think you’re beginning to see my picture.
This is our world here today which we have created, built and improved through generations over endless stretches of time. We and our ancestors gone before us have managed to sculpt a paradise out of a huge near barren rock. We have worked, persisted, succeeded and won. We are masters of our universe and we should be ever so happy and proud of our great achievements.
But there’s almost always a villain in every story. And we have ours.
There are a few among us who sadly lack our firefly sparkle and actually envy it. They plainly see what we have built, say it’s no good and they want to tear it down. In looking at the beauty of our environment they see our towns, airports, trains, ocean liners and such and they refer to them as a blight on our planet.
They observe us productive, enterprising humans advancing, reshaping and controlling our world for the better. And they actually view all this as some kind of infection, an abnormal growth on our lovely planet and they wish to dispose of it.
I say pay them no heed, dear reader. That which they can not create, they wish to tear down. They are envious of our work in progress and its continuing advancement.
And as a proud firefly I’m determined to protect, preserve and brighten it.
Therefore I declare - Fireflies of the world - UNITE!
Dan can be reached at danhughoconnor@gmail.com
