Integrity

"...we've gotta get through this together.'

Integrity crew member Victor Glover delivered, to the World, a lovely heartfelt Easter message:

“In all of this emptiness—this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe—you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we’ve gotta get through this together.”

These are fine words, at this time, from Astronaut, Victor Glover. Almost like reminders from a bygone age. A time of possibilities, when leaders spoke of peace and progress and responsibility each to each. Was that only yesterday?

It’s so easy to forget how beautiful we are and can be amid all the noise. Hate, greed, and rage shout loudly while gentleness speaks in softer tones.

I’ve decided to turn down the noise lately. First thing in the morning I meditate on the Lankavatura Sutra, before anything else can intrude. I’ve stopped trying to make sense of it; now I just let it wash over me.

On Tuesday though I went to bed wondering if a nuclear missile would land on Tehran. Frightened a little. Anxious. Wondering what the dawn would bring. But most of all bemused, dumbfounded, certainly aghast. My head full of worry for the poor people of Iran.

Will they be ok? Will those children still be alive?

Every morning I’ve turned on the radio to hear those words constantly: President Trump has just posted on Truth Social…Followed always by monstrous lies, threats, barely coherent baby-rage, nonsense really.

And each morning I see the face of the World contorted with anger.

We’ll bomb you back to the Stone Age!

Your civilisation will cease to exist! Blah! Blah! And so on and so forth.

A river of sewage constantly flowing from the puckered mouth. A sycophancy of idiocy around this monument from the Dark Age.

I’ve had enough! Enough of the endless strategists and experts on War. The endless commissariat of talking heads trying to make sense out of insanity. Good luck with that!

I’m watching programmes on gardening and permaculture instead.

And then this…

Then, there is the quiet song of EARTH;

Almost the steady beating of a drum.

A song that drives us home-an odyssey.

A song that sings of warmth and nourishment;

Whispers in the ripples on the rivers,

Echoes in the shimmer of the leaves.

The poetry of a forest’s boundless trees;

The murmur of the worker bees;

The stop and chuckle of the bouncing streams

Decanting into endless seas.

The stopped-up silence of ice-age valleys;

The stacked-up mossy grooves of silent peaks

Riven with sheep-tracks and booted trails.

Fuller’s spaceship-earth hanging like a blue

Eye in the immensity of space.

The breathing land-the earth beneath;

The dark and fecund soil that rustles

With the promise of new life.

The patient song that drove Odysseus home

To Ithaki.

To slaughter the suitors of Penelope

And then sit down to home-made cakes and tea.

We climb into her caves to be renewed.

We cross her seven seas to be revealed.

We climb her sacred mountains to be healed.

We will, and must, get through this together!

Blessings and prayers to the beautiful people and especially the innocent children of Iran. May Allah, the all compassionate, keep you safe and well.

And blessings and prayers to the crew of ‘Integrity’. Thanks for showing us who we might be. Get home safe!