Peace, Love, and War

Our planet is now at war against an alien invader. The enemy is an alien to our bodies, and fighting it together could bring us humans to a new beginning of peace and love.


I'm a baby boomer and an aging hippy.

That gives me a particular point of view
  about current events
    and the circumstances
      in which we find ourselves now.

Personally I believe in peace and love,
  and realistically I recognize that
    we are a world at war.

The enemy we are fighting is microscopic
  so that it is invisible to us
    except for the harm it causes.

All the people of the planet are in the same boat,
  so to speak,
    except that some people
      have far more resources
        than the rest.

It may not be fair,
  but it is the situation we are in.

It may be better to say
  [as did a meme I saw recently],
    that we are not all in the same boat,
      but we are all in the same storm.

Far too many people
  who are in positions of public trust
    are seeking their own advantage
      rather than caring for the people
        who depend on their care.

In saying this,
  I'm not talking about any leader in particular,
    but I'm certain that the phenomenon
      will sound familiar to you.

I fact, the truth is that our primary weapon
  in the war against our invisible enemy
    is our caring for each other.

[Commandments of Love? Two, not Ten, not 613]

In order to provide the caring we need,
  those who  care for others day by day
    need tools such as medical equipment
      and medications that work against the enemy.

The medical equipment needed
  includes such things as hospital beds, ventilators,
    and, maybe especially,
      the personal protective equipment
        also known as PPE like gowns, masks,
          goggles or other face coverings and the like
            that blunt the enemy's attacks
              against our front line care givers.

Where the primary weapon of a war
  is caring, it is a different kind of war.

Peace and Love are the power behind the caring.

So it is that we are fighting
  such a different kind of war.

It is a unique opportunity to use our primary weapon
  not only in the time of the war itself,
    but even more so will it be true
      in the period after the war is won. 

I believe there is reason to be confident
  that we will win this war.

Our fighters are strong.

Our weapon of caring
  is universally available to them and to us.

And the tools they need can be produced
  by all kinds of people
    in all kinds of circumstances.

To my knowledge,
  never before in the history of warfare
    have sewing machines been so useful
      in the hands of all kinds of people
        as factories of necessary equipment
          in the winning of a worldwide war.

The sewing machines have been useful
  in making masks and gowns
    as necessary equipment
      to protect our care givers,
        who are our troops
          as they go into battle.

All the people of our small planet
  are being affected by this war and its battles.

All the people of our small planet
  can pull together as one
    in peace and love in new ways,
      not only to win this war
        but also to win the peace
          which comes after it.

In a painful irony of our time
  people have shown love
    by staying apart.
 
People all over the world
  have protected the most vulnerable
    by leaving them alone and in peace.

That has certainly not always felt good!

It has been a deeply painful experience
  in many cases.

Even after we begin to go out and about more,
  even when we are starting
    to gather in small groups,
      some of the pain will remain.

Our contact with each other will be more limited.

Some of us love our hugs.

Those can be deeply important.

For a time, our hugging will be limited.

Even handshakes may be a thing of the past,
  since those can be a major point of contagion.

At the same time, the pain we endure
  in reducing our contact with each other
    can be a major step forward in our battle
      against the invisible enemy that threatens us all.

Sadly, in nearly real time,
  we have been watching
    the conversion of many efforts
      to fight the universal enemy
        into fights against each other
          as part of an ongoing culture war.

As a baby boomer who is also an aging hippy,
  I'm caught in the middle of that very culture war.

All too many people in my age group
  are on the side of more and more conservative
    culture warriors.

As a Christian, I see more and more
  of my co-religionists
    making choices against my preferences
      regarding culture.

A joke I saw recently said,
  "Marijuana is legal, and haircuts are illegal.
    The hippies have won!"

The words of the joke are not universally true,
  especially in the midst of the culture war,
    but the idea stands both as irony
      and as a representation of the zeitgeist,
        the spirit of the age.

In the time of the election of 2016,
  both just before it and just after it,
    the sign of the times was the MAGA hat,
      the red baseball cap that represented,
        "Make America Great Again!"

Now, in the time of a global conflict
  against a universal enemy,
    the sign of the times is a mask and gloves.

There is a lot of misunderstanding
  of the face masks that protect us
    from spraying germs on the people around them.

Some individuals are walking around without masks
  as a way of saying
    that they are not afraid of the germs.

The people who are taking more extreme positions
  are, as usual, a small minority.

- 78% of Americans believe people in their communities should stay home as much as possible.
- 80% of Americans say it's important to wear a mask in public.
- Only 21% of Americans say current restrictions on businesses are too restrictive.

And these numbers cut across all kinds of demographics: education, race, age, income, rural/urban. It's not just rich educated coastal elites who think we should stay home. Most people, from every background, agree.

The statehouse protests are astroturfed, artificial, fake conflicts, and they're getting way too much validation.

Most people are trusting the evidence of science,
  despite news reports that are more interested
    in entertainment than information.

At the same time, there are serious efforts
  to keep us ever more deeply divided
    just as we need to unite more closely
      to win a war that threatens us all.

I'm optimistic, anyway.

We will come together,
  and we will prevail,
    as we work together
      to protect the most vulnerable people around us
        [including me!].

As with any war, there will be casualties.

There will be people who will be blamed.

It will not be an easy task,
  but peace and love will prevail,
    because there are more of us
      who want to see it come to be
        than there are of those who seek to divide us.

Having come together
  to do what we have to do to protect each other,
    it will never again be so easy to divide us
      over issues that matter much less.

We will have loved each other most effectively
  by staying apart for a time.

We will learn to treasure our togetherness,
  and we will learn new ways to express our caring.

We have seen changes for the better
  in our Earth Herself,
    and we will not so easily go back to harming Her
      in ways that too many of us
        thought were inevitable.

I have a lot of hope for our future.

I believe in
  and I am committed to
    peace and love,
      and maybe for the first time in history,
        those are our weapons enabling us
          to win a war that threatens all our lives.

Peace be with us all.

May we all indeed learn new ways
  to share our love with each other


Amen.

So let it be.

Blessed be.

Beltane and May Day

Beltane as the start of Summer, is the ancient corresponding festival of Samhain (Halloween), the start of Winter. Mayday is not only a distress call; it is also Beltane.

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The First day of May marks
  the ancient feast of Beltane.

We are celebrating a couple of days late,
  but that's OK.

Beltane has its own Season,
  a.k.a. Summer!

According to Celtic tradition,
  Beltane marks the beginning of Summer
    as Samhain (Halloween) marks
      the beginning of Winter.

So Blessed Beltane!

Happy Beltane, my friends!

It really is a glorious celebration
  from ancient times.

I'm proud to share with you
  that my family includes a Beltane baby,
    at least in the modern sense:
      My granddaughter, Kyla,
        was born on May 1, 1999,
          21 years ago last Friday.

The traditional meaning of a Beltane baby
  refers to a baby born
    about nine months after Beltane,
      and there is a good, traditional reason for that.

You see, Beltane celebrates
  not only the start of Summer
    and the Celtic Sun God, Bel (or Belenos/us),
      it's also a sacred day for the ancient Goddess
        of Fertility, the May Queen,
          (whose name, Creiddylad, KRahay-TH-IHL-aeD
            is difficult to pronounce!),
              and you can imagine (if you want to)
                what the celebration of some of her rites
                  was like.

Her name is a form
  of the English and German name, Cordelia.

At least that form of her name
  is much easier to pronounce!

The song from the musical play, Camelot,
  "The Lusty Month of May,"
    includes the lyrics:
      sung by GUENEVERE:
Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev'ryone goes
Blissfully astray.

That recurring verse at least gives us some idea
  of the rites of Spring that were traditionally
     celebrated around Beltane.

The Beltane bonfires are another custom
  that celebrate the arrival of warmer weather
    and the joys of Summer.

The bonfires were sacred to the Celtic God Bel,
  who was god of the sun and fire.

The name of the festival, Beltane,
  means Fire of Bel (Bel means shining,
    and Tane means fire.)

Like Samhain, or Halloween,
  Beltane is a thin time
    in which the veil between worlds
      is almost thin enough to see through it.

As I've said in relation to Samhain,
  I can feel the thin time
    mostly by recognizing the spirits of nature
      that are around us all the time.

Everything that breathes has spirit,
  since breath is the meaning of the word, spirit.

Like the last day of October,
  the first day of May is sacred
    to all life,
      but in opposite ways.

Life is becoming dormant, going to sleep,
  at the start of the Season of Cold and Quiet.

Life is waking up, returning to activity,
  at the start of the Season of Warmth and Growth.

We recognize the feeling if we stop to think about it.

We ourselves are a part of natural life in our world.

Sometimes we forget this,
  and we need experiences of awakening.

May Day gives us exactly that,
  an opportunity to recognize our place
    in the overall scheme of things.

Likewise, the emergency call of Mayday, Mayday,
  can provide an experience of waking up.

It began to be used as an emergency call
  in 1923
    because it sounds a lot like the French word,
      m'aider, meaning help me!

We are in a planetary emergency now,
  because of a global pandemic.

It may just be that we are being called upon
  to wake up
    to the realities of our relationship to other people
      and to the rest of the world in which we live.

If we accept this opportunity
  and begin to move forward with the idea
    that good can come
      of the experience of these days,
        then the difficulties and losses
          can be an opportunity for us all
            to make choices
              that will enable our survival.

We don't know yet
  how bad the pandemic will get,
    but that is at least partly up to us.

We don't know yet
  how many lessons we and others will learn from it,
    but that is even more up to us.

The most important lesson for us all
  will be compassion,
    the recognition that no one stands alone
      in suffering or in benefits.

Inequities in our economic system
  are standing out in sharp relief.

Our need to grasp the importance
  of the world of nature, and we are a part of nature,
   the well being of all living things
      including ourselves
        is becoming clearer and clearer
          along with the water and the air
            becoming clearer in places all over the world
              where pollution was obscuring
                 everyone's vision of things around them.

Ours is not the first Beltane season
  in which a cry of Mayday went out
    for all the world to see.

The first day of May is the world's true Labor Day
  ever since the Haymarket Square riots in Chicago,
    on May 4, 1886.

The riot first broke out as a result of protests
  seeking an eight hour work day for laborers.

From our perspective today,
  the eight hour work day does not seem
    such an unreasonable demand.

Another Beltane season event
  that provided a Mayday call to our nation and world
    took place at Kent State University
      on May 4, 1970.

National Guard troops fired
  on a crowd of students,
    killing four of them.

Not all of those who died
  were protesting,
    but those who were protesting
      were opposing the bombing of Cambodia
        during the Vietnam War.

From the perspective of today,
  the protests against the illegal incursion
    into another sovereign nation,
      expanding a war zone,
        does not seem so unreasonable.

Many events and choices
  seem different
    from the perspective of a different time.

The balancing of one need
  with a different need
    is often the source of conflicts and crises
      in our lives.

In our time Beltane brings us all
  once again
    to a question of balance.

What will our priorities be?

Will we reopen our businesses too soon
  and invite the pandemic to reach new peaks?

Or will we reopen our society too late
  so that recovery will be impossible?

It is a delicate question of balance,
  and one that we will all have to consider together.

The wisdom of the ages will come to bear upon us.

Again, compassion will be the key.

In the question of opening soon enough
  without opening too soon, our compassion
    will be enabled by our having concern
      for each other's vulnerabilities.

Those of us who have
  pre-existing medical conditions
    that make us more vulnerable to disease
      will have to be considered if we are to survive.

Likewise, those who are on the edge
  of extreme poverty,
    who cannot withstand
      a financial emergency of $400,
        will have to be considered
          if our economy is to have any hope
            of recovery.

Beltane brings us precisely the lessons we need
  for our spiritual lives,
    for our ability to continue breathing,
      as individuals and as a culture.

We cannot ignore the world of nature.

We cannot ignore each other.

We cannot ignore anyone's needs,
  and we will have to learn to live together,
    sharing the resources of our world
      as stewards and not
        as masters and subjects.

The equality of the God and Goddess of Beltane,
  Bel and Cordelia
    set us an example in mythology
      that can enable us to live our own
        very real lives.

Amen.

So mote it be.

Blessed Be.