Journal October 2022

During the Falklands War the UK was the most patriotic I have ever known it to be. I was still not yet an adult. Through Chilean friends who found they could not return to Chile after a family holiday due to a regime change there, I met Peruvians and some Argentinians my own age. We all agreed the Falkland War  was preventable and were saddened by losses on both sides because we are human first and last. I had already encountered and befriended a refugee from Lebanon by then. We were both 13 when we met and she showed me the bullet that had nearly killed her while lying on her bed wishing the violence would stop.   

Every day is history. Today is 22nd April 2022. It is now 11pm. On social media today people have been busy highlighting that it’s World Earth Day. Being keen to do my bit to encourage more people to engage in and implement solutions to Global Warming and rid our planet of pollution and in the process make life far more equitable and fairer for all, I was looking forward to joining in. But then I saw this on Twitter late last night and found it this morning on YouTube.  

I wept. Not just because of what’s happening today in the Ukraine, but because the whole world is in chaos.

I wept because for as long as we continue to collect past hurts we will never remember all that we have in common far less that it has always been the case we seldom seek the far more common instances that have averted harm or offence and resulted in agreement and mutual respect. It remains far easier to start a conflict than broker let alone maintain a peace. Do we even seek peaceful or inclusive solutions to any issue anymore? What are we prepared to compromise on these days to achieve that even temporarily.

Regardless if you are pro Ukraine or pro Russia, they have a common heritage, take the labels away and what do you now see? Now take all history away and ask yourself what is happening across the globe today?   

This day 22nd April 2022 I have made a memorial Day for myself so that whatever the outcome maybe for the Ukraine and Climate Change on human rights issues, trade deals, tenuous alliances, whatever I won’t forget the lives already lost in the valiant efforts of all humanity for peace and an end to extreme divisions between us all. It is our human duty to care and be at all times inclusive, respectful and supportive to help people have the most and best of opportunities to make this Earth a place of harmonious co-existence not just for our species but for all life on it.

Tomorrow is but another day in history. Will it see the beginning of World War III? What will you do to help heal and make a difference toward a happy peaceful co-existence? How many days would you keep going in that endeavour, or even seek harmony even with your arch enemy I wonder? Could you broker a peace and maintain it?  If not you, then who? I would argue no individual can on their own. on any issue.

A rough visual guide to our colonisation and geopolitical history from the beginning.

Today, I feel life weary. Today I have spent silently alone weeping. Today I have sobbed and mourned the dead throughout all human history. Today my soul has felt crushed and today I have saved no one’s life and found no human company to sit with me to hold my hand.

But I know that tomorrow like the best of all our  ancestors, I will continue toward that objective of permanent harmonious, respectful co-existence of inclusivity and as far as is possible an equal opportunity for all. But I am realistic, because I know that in what little time I have left now I can do very little. I know that we will never be born equal as no mammal is. There will always be power struggles just as there is in nature.

Nonetheless we have the opportunity to narrow the gap between extremes, unlike any other species on this planet and in doing so could opt against being violent in word and deed. For as long as I still live will be as defiant as ever to do my bit, however small to help others find the same courage to do the same. Namely to seek solutions not difficulties, to remember the best of human endeavours not the worst, to strive to heal not harm or cause offence and above all else to force history to record more of our successes than our failings and by so doing set that example for our our political leaders and future generations to follow. I will falter, and make mistakes and tear my soul apart again and again for doing so you won’t have to.

I am no God or prophet or Messiah, there have never been ghosts or aliens contacting me to feel this way, and never will be. It had always been fellow human beings that have inspired me most. I believe, you too can do as much, and most likely fair much better than I, in your own unique way in this greatest challenge of all… Peace for all humanity, for all eternity on this our sublimely beautiful and diverse planet we call Earth.