Drawing on “The Battle Hymn of The Republic,” this long-cycle reflection wants to shed some light on why and how “critique” – that is, our deeply authentic spirit of critical inquiry – both corrects and confirms. So reflecting on aftermaths helps us, one and all, to hold the canons of cultural creations forever open.
Should it yet hold true across millennia that the wages of our shortcomings are death and dying, we ought to take as freely given that the wages of our struggles and our strivings turn, and also return, on our sense of endings.
Should it also hold true across millennia that the last should become the first, we ought actually to realize that endlessly refining sensibilities yields our constant yearning for fresh, even refreshing, starts.
In agelessly humane good faith, we love to hope that, when one breaks through the come-and-go confines of making a separate peace, we may each and all somehow transcend individuation. Beyond the quiet desperations of concussive conclusions; after the not-so-blessed assurances of corrosive collusions, may we not yet stretch beyond herd mentalities? May we not reach past all that fanatical, collective, lemming-like rushing around?
May not differentiating social and economic intents somehow lead us, one and all, to help wage that long, sought-after peace?
May not endlessly refining our sensibilities also serve, leading us to ask;
“How might the wages of peace turn, and yet return, on seasonal homecomings?”
Might we then justly become merry and bright? Joyful glories belong to the whole of us, like the “procession of days.” Allelu!
Jefferson, you’re right! The door is open for fresh – and refreshing – starts for everyone.
Love that matching picture.
blessings,
Cynthia