2/27/08

The Yoke

I first read Dmitry Orlov a few years back, back in the days when I was still staggering under the weight of The Truth. I had not yet learned to carry the grim future on my shoulders. During the intervening years I have learned to balance the heavy burden with hope, so that now the yoke across my back weighs a great deal, but I can carry it because it’s balanced. And so I plod on. This requires a daily, perhaps obsessive need to follow current events, because at any given moment the situation can spiral out of control and the burden of the grim future can become unbearably heavy such that I can no longer balance it. By keeping my fingers on the pulse of our world, I tell myself that I can adjust my counterweight, hope, accordingly and constantly, and thereby continue to balance the powerfully burdensome weight of the world on my shoulders. I treasure those who labor under the yoke with me. I pray for those whose weight we drag behind us, that they may come to their senses, step forward and help us before it’s too late. I understand the phrase “carrying the weight of the world on one’s shoulders” in a way that I never did before our communal life began to unravel. Now it’s clear to me that the only way to carry the reality of our world is with humility, hope and constant vigilance. Whether we accept this yoke and embrace it willingly, or whether circumstances force it upon us, that is the question.

Dmitry Orlov has outlined a wise counsel here about what the future holds. Please read the whole thing. We who spend a lot of time with alternative news can get sidetracked into dark alleys devoid of all hope and light. But we have to keep carrying hope, and not just a little, but a LOT. I’m talking about buckets full. It’s the only way to counterbalance the darkness. Without hope, we will fall swiftly to the bottom, living like animals but without their nobility.

If you can’t have hope in God, have hope in your fellow human beings. Some of us will not disappoint you. Be one of those people with us by carrying a little hope. Not the dementia of denial, but true hope that we can still pull it together as a people, as Americans, when life as we know it collapses.

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