Fire & Ice (with apologies to Robert Frost)

 Some say the world will end in fire, others say in ice.

But the end of the world isn’t coming, not tomorrow, or next year, or on any fixed date.

Rather, the world is continually ending as we separate ourselves from the source of life and love, as we de-humanize the stranger, as we close our hearts against caring for the neighbor, as we distance ourselves from the earth and her creatures.  The sounds of silence, the words of kindness unspoken, these are the sounds of the world shutting down.

Yet the future is continually beginning as we expand the circle of compassion, widen the definitions of family, expand the household of mutuality, honor the soil and plant the seeds of hope.  The hum of conversation and the noise of dialogue and, yes, the clash of voices in honest debate, these are the sounds of the future asking how to unfold.

Whether the world ends, or how, or when, then, is really up to us.

From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire

But if it had to perish twice I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice