inheritance

i was listening to the police synchronicity album last night, one of my all-time favorites by far. during "walking in your footsteps," a certain line caught my ears differently than it had the hundreds of times i've heard or sung along with it. "they say the meek shall inherit the earth." all of a sudden, it took on new meaning. obviously laced with sarcasm, since what i typically got from that line is that survival of the fittest will always win; thus, the meek will only die off.

this time, however, what immediately popped into my head was something like this:

we are part of a world where survival of the fittest works - at least to the degree that the immediate visible results show that the weak animal or plant dies or loses the battle. or human, by the way. what we don't see is the long-term effect of pseudo-winning over everything. for example, today i saw two squirrels on campus looking for nuts and such in the grass. they were about 7 feet away from each other, until one came upon something and started to dig. the other squirrely, seeing this take place when it had nothing going on, decided to attack the other squirrel and take over the digging. survival of the fittest, strong one wins out, gets one more meal. simple enough.

but those are animals. they're both the same animal (species). in the mortal human realm, this happens every millisecond somewhere on the planet, and in space come to think of it. but we have this spiritual side to us that sets us apart. we are the caretakers of the plants, the squirrels, the water, the earth and all that is in it. while we think we are controlling things nicely, there is another plane to our existence. a plane where God is in us and all around us.

the meek shall inherit the earth. we strive to control our lives and others' lives through money, violence, propoganda, subversion. we make advances in science at the cost of human lives. we get to work on time with fossil fuels, using them up like there's no end to the supply, and no consequence to their use. it's all a test, and we are failing.

the meek shall inherit the earth. many suffer today - through suffering, there is growth. through suffering, we see the evil abilities we possess. through suffering, we see the righteous and good way to do things, even when it is not present in our actions. we are failing the test.

the meek shall inherit the earth. the saying reverberates through centuries of struggle, growth, plight of nations and individuals, all hoping and working through adversity for the moment that good finally triumphs over ALL evil. perhaps not for quite some time, perhaps before i finish this blog entry. we don't know, but we have to continue to work towards it. make good of bad situations; look for the positive, creative solution to problems; be kind, even when you don't feel like it; pray to the God of all creation to cleanse yourself and strengthen your will to survive through mercy and grace towards all things the way our divine Mother would. true survival of the fittest is to rise above the pain and create goodness.

the meek shall inherit the earth. we are not sheep. we have the choice in any given circumstance to give notice of our desire to stop hurting each other and our planet. our power lies in the fact that even if we don't win a physical battle, our spirits cannot be broken, our eyes are open to the error of mortal power's ways.

the meek shall inherit the earth because they will be rewarded in a way that is not fleeting, that does not hurt anyone or anything; a reward that only can come from within and without in harmony with the cosmos.

be the meek, inherit the earth.