Ode to the Dot

It was on a Valentine’s Day in 1990, when Voyager I took this photo of something that no human had ever seen in history. Famed astronomer Carl Sagan requested that NASA take the shot as the small satellite flew by the back side of the planet Saturn, and through its rings was able to catch a glimpse of what Sagan would later refer to as “a pale blue dot”. An image of our planet that was only the size of one pixel appearing as a pale blue dot against the vastness of space laying quietly in a sunbeam of light over 6 billion kilometers away.

These past few days, through satellite technology, we have been able to monitor the movements of a caravan of chaos moving from the borders of Russia to the interior depths of an invaded Ukrainian landscape. Watching first hand and in real time the movements of a foreign military industrial complex the likes no one has ever seen perform on the world stage. To most of us, it is all simply pixels on a screen. The quietness of the sunbeam is lost in the deafening noise of war emanating from the human screams of terror, media madness, talking heads, bombs, planes and tanks from Putin’s war games and rationalizations from all sides.

Life is always about balance. This is basic physics. Life’s yin and yang. We must remember that for every hot there is cold. For every right, there is a left…or would that be wrong. For every positive there is a negative. For every good, there is a bad. For every light, there is dark. For every will, there is a way. For every tear, there is a smile and for every win, a loss. For every war, there is peace. For everything there is a season.

*

“We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties We build up the world's great cities, And out of a fabulous story We fashion an empire's glory: One man with a dream, at pleasure, Shall go forth and conquer a crown; And three with a new song's measure Can trample a kingdom down.

We, in the ages lying, In the buried past of the earth, Built Nineveh with our sighing, And Babel itself in our mirth; And o'erthrew them with prophesying To the old of the new world's worth; For each age is a dream that is dying, Or one that is coming to birth…”

ARTHUR O'SHAUGHNESSY

*

I make music and can honestly say that it has saved my life. There are times when I dream throughout the day and night. I dream as I wander by the lone sea breakers or as I sit by a desolate stream. I wonder as I wander through the days gone by. I have witnessed first hand both birth and death. We must remember that we watch or we create. We ask or we ignore. We go forward or we get left behind.

*

“…Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.”

CARL SAGAN

We are tasked to make the lives better for those who come after us in this plane of existence. We are tasked to make happiness out of sorrow. We are tasked to stand and be a witness. We are tasked to help those who ask or cannot help themselves. Although, we are also tasked to find consistency in our existence.

There is an old saying that it is best that we choose our battles. Not every battle can be won so not every battle should be fought. However, every war has a victim and a victor no matter the premise. What is it to say that what makes it ok to ignore one wrong while another is played out to become the bastion of democracy? We must take into consideration of our perceivable lack of attention or memory in these moments to the fact that our own government has invaded and/or bombed senselessly Somalia, Libya, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Yemen, Japan, Syria and countless other countries. Yet, we seem to find a reason for this.

We will find a reason for it in order to rationalize our position of rightness.

These moments hold truths for politicians and conquerors. These moments hold pain and death for the innocents in their wake. These moments hold riches for those who see an opportunity. These moments hold despair and destruction for those who are on the wrong side of right. These moments hold a right that tends to become wrong as time moves forward.

For us to be right more as a species we must learn to rise above the wrongness of war. War has never solved a problem, but only pushed the can farther down the street until another generation perceives things in a different way. It wasn’t long ago when Great Britain, Russia, and the United States were all allies to another invading dictator moving across the European landscape. Hitler killed millions before most of the world found him to be wrong. Stalin killed twice as many before the world found him to be wrong. Mao killed even more before the world recognized that wrong. And the list goes on.

But, lest not forget the ode to the dot. Remember that we do know the difference between wrong and right. We’ve seen it too many times before not to recognize it. We must step up and make our voices known to all who participate in these charades. All participate even when we don’t.

War is wrong.

Period.