Race and racism. Greed and poverty. Cancel culture. Covid.

We have become a nation divided. It cannot be understated. It has become who we are.

This reality is numbed and hidden by the bread and circuses of technology. Implanted values. Implanted entitlements.

So go on, blame and hate and riot. Then be ready to step into the abyss - a new kind of national treasure, a Grand Caynon, filled with a volcanic effluent. A lava-like mix of secrets and lies garnished with massive debt and the occasional secret genetic mutation.

To consider whether we are past the point of no return is existentially frightening.

A mighty river of divisiveness winds through the nation's soul; polluting, eroding, destroying, and eroding the fragile protections once constructed with ink and quill in Philadelphia.

People like Martin, John, Robert, Malcom, Rosa, Abraham - they all worked to stem the current - before it could collapse the concrete philosophy of righteousness built by previous generations.

This, from a nation that had an addiction to the printed dailies since the 18th century. That huddled behind radios and televisions to be comforted and connected to each other - from World War II through Vietnam and Watergate and the Iran Hostage Crisis. Especially through the darkest days of November, 1963, when our country's future would change forever.

And now this. Divisiveness. Distrust. Agendas.

The fabric of American values and political ideals was woven in the illumination of colonial candles. A cloth of specialness, enduring and exceeding all expectations.

Change, for the purposes of social justice, is a worthy pursuit. Some may say it's the purpose of the soul to seek justice and pursue a path toward social change. It's worthy of your full thought, your complete self. Your soul.

If there is an obvious truth behind what we pursue, why do we disagree? Perhaps the balance of this nation's values and beliefs are so perfectly and oppositely weighted that they cannot be reconciled.

Maybe we need a national therapy session. I believe that someone needs to tell ALL of us how to shake our heads, squint our eyes and stay focused on justice and truth. Not by memes or populist imagery.

Or, perhaps more simply, we could read the inspiring words penned by the 1907 Nobel Laureate, Rudyard Kipling.

They're found in his poem "If", written in 1895.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

.... Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

then you'll be a man, my son.

It's a path forward, a gift, from 1895.

#division

Rudyard's Path Forward