Rays of Dawn
Behind storm clouds of fear and resistance, rays of dawn rise over the horizon.
It is truly an epochal time in human history. Some despair that the world is just as violent and venal as in the ‘60s, when the dawn of the new age was heralded, and, for sure, the dark will not yield (is not yielding) willingly to the light. But the sun is coming; it is inexorable. If we climb to the top of the hill and look real carefully out across the plain, we can just barely see the first rays peeping out.
As the old saw says, “Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.” Indeed, all is not smooth sailing. All too often, those rays are obscured by storm clouds, and the morning sky glows bloody red. Still, behind the storm clouds of fear and resistance, rays of dawn persist in rising. Dark secrets and customs of oppression and repression are increasingly being brought to light and thoroughly aired, as they must for healing and reconciliation.
As Bob Dylan sang, “the times they are a-changin’.” Fast. We cannot assume a future at all like the past. In fact, we’d do better to assume it won’t be so. Not by a long shot. And paying uncritical heed to conventional wisdom may not be a wise course of action.
As the Rays of Dawn continue to rise over the horizon, we may not always recognize them as such. Some may pass by, lost in the noise of the news. I will call out in The Green Pen those that happen to catch my eye. If you see some that got past me, please let me know about them (mike@thegreenpen.org) so I may add them to this occasional series, Rays of Dawn.