RISING FROM THE ASHES©2017 Danièle Starenkyj
How can we bounce back, start again, get up, restart, raise our heads when misfortune hits us hard?
Nature rises from the ashes. The photo of a wild orchid plant breaking through the ashes at the foot of a tree charred by a lava flow after the eruption of the St. Helens volcano in the United States is forever etched in my mind. And then there is also the bouquet of arctic flowers nestled in the hollow of rotting bowhead whalebone, blooming after the polar winter ...
Communities are rising from the ashes. World War II was hell, but from the wreckage of that conflagration emerged men and women —thinkers, psychiatrists, scientists, physicians, artists, and others—who , having grasped the horror of nihilistic philosophies, embraced with courage and perseverance the hard work of rebuilding a society that had sunk into inhumanity .
Asked about the conditions of RESILIENCE of a human community , Dr. Boris Cyrulnik , a survivor of this war, affirmed that two things were needed: a ) Solidarity between individuals and b) meaning.
Solidarity is finding the courage to look the other in the eye long enough to see that not reaching out to them is drowning oneself.
Meaning is understanding why and how what happened. Why and how do we end up hating others? Why and how does the invitation to love one's neighbor, even if they are enemies, no longer resonate in the individual conscience to the point that the commandment : "You shall not kill " has lost its imperative authority. ?
Solidarity. Meaning 1. We must take the time to be lucid. Without scrupulous honesty, without integrity, without great uprightness, we cannot hope to survive infamy, to be reborn from it, and to get back on track in the right direction. ©2017 .
1. Danièle Starenkyj , REFLECTIONS FOR A BETTER LIFE, Infinite Thoughts, Orion.
Leave a comment