The lines aren’t malleable until we decide they are. Deciding is all it takes for long standing institutions built on principle to begin to crumble; be it the church, the school, the government. All are susceptible if and when the lines that define them are manipulated by an individual or a group.
These leylines* on which each was founded, at times have been obscured by winds of change, yet they have emerged intact after the storm. When, however, these lines lose themselves under the pressures of “the times,” all else that once was built on certitude is lost. Without certitude anything goes -- or everything goes -- ethics, morality, common sense, and above all, Truth with a capital “T.” Without Truth, where are we? Back in the dark ages; not medieval days where much certitude was placed ahead of human rights and lives, but all the way back to prehistoric times with the most rudimentary existence for all living creatures. Is that what we want? Truly?
I’ll not take to my “high horse” to fight this fight. I have fallen from there too many times to no avail. Several failed attempts over a lifetime of trying stand out in hindsight. How many, very many innocent trees have been felled by my failure to prevail on their behalf? How many womens’ lives, including my own, have been detrimentally impeded by man-made rules of law, despite my protest signs held high? Or what of my impotence before unholy men of the cloth standing between women and their God given gifts buried beneath oppressive edicts in spite of boycotting their “services.”
No, I will not carry yet again banners held high at this age of seventy while vile and vicious vitriol is spewed in the faces of those of us who try as we might to hold the line that matters for us all. The work of speaking out and up belongs to those with so much more at stake than whatever remains of my days.
These younger iterations of those who have come before owe it to themselves to reclaim the Truth with a capital “T.” Do they know the Truth? Was it visible to them as they came of age the way it was during different times before they became aware? Speaking Truth on a regular basis helps to preserve it for everyone and for ourselves. A world without Truth is a pliable existence.
Today we say we believe in these “unalienable rights” while tomorrow we abandon them for our own purposes. Allowing the foundations that were meant to last to be weakened is like watching the constant ebb and flow of the tide eroding the very place beneath our feet. We know that we are no longer standing on solid ground. Each of the major modern institutions that were brick and mortar and by definition, concrete, have been eroding to the point of totally washing away. That is the Truth of the world in which we live. What are we to do? What will we do?
*geographical lines that crisscross all over the globe. Similar to latitudinal and longitudinal lines, ley lines seem to provide a structure or system for many monuments and natural landforms. Further, they supposedly carry with them rivers of “supernatural energy”.
The Solzhenitzn quote I try to live by is: "The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world."