Lately I often wonder if the next domino will be the Laws Of Gravity, as the world seems more topsy-turvy every single day.

The news reads like I’ve woke inside the opening credits of some post-apocalyptic movie, as the film scrolls out the mistakes that people made, giving the background, something like the opening of Star Wars.

Common are open displays of racism unheard of since the 60’s, leaders that are supposed to represent the people representing the interests of themselves alone, lying accepted not at face value but as instead somehow insignificant, science at some point became political, and institutions that were enacted as safeguards eroded slowly by this constant onslaught of mixed messages designed solely to murky the waters of truth.

Being a student of history, and one who is often found relaxed here in my nook engaged in some lecture from one prestigious institution or other, indulging my passion for the most ancient past.

So when I read the news, or watch Rachel Maddow from MSNBC on YouTube with her concise and thought-provoking pieces of the puzzle, somehow I always find myself reeling back in time to other dark ages, and seeing what truths, patterns, knowledge or otherwise I can glean, sometimes merely as a way of distancing myself a little, and perhaps find a way towards the light, and how on earth I can express all that without it sounding like some pie-in-the-sky daydream delight.

Those pieces of the puzzle tumble and swirl, and from that timeline of thousands upon thousands of years, I wonder what the future holds for us all, and what the hell is going on, and what I can possibly do to shine a light, know what I mean?

How do I possibly untangle it all? So,  I try instead to take a long view, seeing if there are parallels from history to compare, and what happened next, like a telephoto lens focused on the truth of the human condition.

Like, after economic hardships on a vast scale, what happens? What has humanity, civilizations really, what has transpired afterwards?

The one and ever encompassing truth I often have to be reminded of though, is quite simple, and Pollyanna as it may seem, there is truth in it, that it WILL be ok, we will survive. Just hold the light of truth up as a beacon.

Examine, question, and don’t walk in lock-step with those around you.

And remember that when Marie Antoinette said “let them eat cake”, an indifferent jest, her starving people chopped off her opulent head.

This darkness I perceive around me I believe is a product of many things, not the least of which is the aftereffects of the Great Recession of the late 2000’s into 2010 – the International Monetary Fund concluded that it was the worst global recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s [wikipedia].

As throughout history, after such a time of economic hardship, humans have often fallen into a dark pit, circled the wagons, all deals are off, decisions made from ignorance , and dictatorial leaders have grandly appeared stage right as caped crusaders for the good of the people; such as how the Taliban took power, swooping in as the savior of order, and taking a stranglehold grip on the people, seeing that opportunity to control and gain a power not generally available except during times of a weakened people, in the grip of fear of what their future holds.

As a passionate idealist my heart and spirit is often broken, yet as my blood still pumps through my veins and I am above ground I will always listen for the quiet whispers of hope.

I really just can’t help myself, and as dreary and depressed as the daily news can be, I still have that voice inside that encourages me to not lose heart, not give into the dark that I see surrounding me, negativity born of fear and watch helplessly at the rejection of uncomfortable truths, like the human hand in Climate Change, or acknowledging that science-based facts are unpopular because the elites make less profits from the power of the wind and the sun.

Profits over people, us versus them, and manufactured crisis after crisis created to distract and engage the fight or flight nature within us all, as chaos sprinkled like salt on a wound and mixed-messages are a fog to hide behind for despots and their desires of grandeur.

That 45th of a line of more worthy men will try, and succeed I fear, time and time again, to destroy the integrity and foundation of his nation, weakened and on its knees and who knows what the future holds, but he will not win the war, just a battle here and there, for I still believe regardless.

And there is this to consider, always, as everything in its good time, and we are often at the whim of change and chaos, even so, and as Newton said for everything there is an equal and opposite reaction. On this alone I suppose science and faith may agree.

To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sow;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

God alone knows why I have any hope at all left, but I do. I believe that in time everything will be ok, and that all I can do is hope once in a while to be a light in the darkness, if I can, when I can, regardless of who is there to see.

Seriously have also been thinking of ridding myself of Facebook.

Thing is, I rely on it, but it became at some point this weapon of mass destruction, inciting chaos and propaganda against my will, and that scares me. I mean, I lived most of my life without it, happily, unlike a millennial, and there is life without internet, right outside my door, I lived it.

It’s a balancing act, I suppose, today, with all the many ways we can be manipulated. Will it change anything if I do, and do the pros outweigh the cons?

Damn, but do I know how it feels when I’m being manipulated, believe me. If nothing more, those four years I spent with Tim gave me a good education in that, and on what the masters of the art do to get you where they want.

And you know, it’s very exhausting to be always on your guard, looking for boogeymen in every 11001 algorithm or other that parsed the information sent to me via some LED screen, as those characters dance across the virtual page, or talking heads blather away on YouTube, subliminal messages, suspicious minds, and we are again caught in their gawdawful clever trap.

It’s then the extremes become every day, and you forget how it felt before, how oblivious feels, how you were before some cloaked daemon took over the airwaves, how to get away from it, how to get some perspective, as all you know has been one horrifying news byte after another. You forget where you were, how you were, and what values you held dear because you don’t know what is important anymore.

And as that anger sweeps up inside, and takes over whole days that I had other plans for, and at some point, I wonder what more I can possibly say or do to change anything at all.

Who am I to think I can change the world? D3 laughed for a full minute when I admitted that factoid once to him, but I didn’t feel like a fool, I just knew he couldn’t see what I see, through my gardeners’ eyes, that planting seeds can one day become flowers, and feed the honey bees.