The Circle
Excerpt from Twin Stories, written in 2014
Julia knows that 2014 is a critical year for humanity.
There is too much wealth hand in hand with dire poverty. Some people die of hunger, others of overdoses. The rich collect things they don’t need while the poor scavenge through their garbage. Families don’t communicate, preferring to chat online. The word “friend” has been redefined through social media sites that have nothing to do with being social.
Many people have no interest in Mother Earth. Recycling is too much trouble. Rain forests have been razed to make way for fancy hotels. The earth is burning and no one can see it. All for the sake of money and pleasure.
Old and beautiful languages are disappearing because English has become the universal language. Not the English of Shakespeare, Wordsworth or Donne, but the English of business and technology.
Tolerance is gone. Race differences have deepened. The white man is supreme. Women’s souls have a thirst for justice that cannot be quenched. Children don’t respect their parents because parents don’t respect their children. Teachers stick to a curriculum that has nothing to do with education. Doctors dispense prescriptions instead of medical care. Sex is just another game.
People are living longer but parents have become a bother to their own children. The wisdom of the grandmothers is drying up like the rainforest. Aggression and violence are the order of the day.
It’s like the age of reason except there is no reason for anything and nothing is reasonable.
Julia knows that without her help and the help of others like her, the earth will disappear in a not too distant future. Aware that many problems are solved at night in her sleep, she does not answer the door past eight p.m., so she can make room for solutions.
To my friend Bob Tapp, and his dear friend Julia