Windows on the World

Michael and I are making our way through a Penguin Classics set of eighty little books (each is fifty some-odd pages of text, and measures six and a half inches by four inches) that offer a great cross-section of written material translated into English, and served in portions just large enough to provide a "tasting menu" of human culture.

There are short stories, poems, excerpts from plays, words of wisdom from antiquity (occidental and oriental), and historical writings.

A lot of it is new to both of us. And reading Marco Polo's writings about his travels in India shows us just how, shall we say "unusual" much of the world has been and, in many ways, continues to be. After reading about Caligula in writings by Suetonius today it occured to me that we as a human race haven't "progressed" since the days of the Roman Empire.

But as individuals and as collectives of individuals we have, somehow, found ways to lasso, cultivate, and preserve the most marvelous extremes of what humanity has to offer, particulary in the practices of art and music (and, as this series also shows, in writing).

It feels like as a human society (globally, as far as I can see through my various digital windows) we are entering a very dark period. We have stepped through one of the doors over here in the United States of America. Many of us haven't stepped through voluntarily: we were pushed through. And the tide will take us to places that I imagine will get darker and darker. We are passing shadows on the walls that feel familiar because of the knowledge that some of us have of history, but a great deal of what has happened to humanity over the millenia hasn't been written down. And a great deal of what has happened in history has never been reported because nobody survived to tell the tales.

But during those dark times there must have been music. Love (romantic, friendship, and between family members) is built into us. Community has always created a (sometimes fleeting) feeling of safety. Beauty and wonder in nature has always been around us, as well as the ability to appreciate it.

The progress that has happened during my lifetime has been extraordinary. I feel that we have prioritized kindness in the generation of children who are in preschool and in the early primary grades. The majority of them have learned (especially in public schools) to be kind to one another, to value kindness, and to be tolerant of the fact that everybody is different and everybody needs to get along.

This is a big thing.

I gave out a lot of candy to kids while I was walking in the Fourth of July parade (wearing my "No Kings in America" shirt).  Every child who was of speaking age said, "Thank you." And the parents of smaller children thanked me on behalf of their child.

This is enough to give me hope that the kindness that has been prioritized in education and in parenting will help us to be a more tolerant society even while we are faced with the darkness that is coming. Darkness can destroy a cruel society. But I would like to believe that a kind society might just have a chance.