I am an Earthling (Part 2 – violence)

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There are many lessons
That I have
Not learn’t
From my wise mother
Not because
She has not
Made them apparent
They are there
For all to see
But I
Did not see
I looked
But I did
Not understand
I understood
But I did not
Take it to heart
And if it is
Not in my heart
There is
No passion
To act
On what
I understand
Yet there are
Many lessons
I did learn
That I have
Come to understand
Over eons
Of human time
This planet
This life
This mother
Or perhaps
Some mother
Beyond her
Gave me
A brain
A mind
A moving point
In time
A moving position
In society
And thus
A history
In memory
A future
In imagination
A challenge
To live
A meaningful life

With these things
I have learn’t much
I have used
My talents
I have learn’t
From my mistakes
I have built
In many ways
A better world
There is much
To still do
But
A long journey
Has been travelled
Milestones
Have been
Attained
And I have
Passed on by
But yet
Retaining
Much of that
Hard wrought
Wisdom
What is it
That I
Have learn’t
What is it
That I am
Doing better
That can
Allow me to say
With pride
I am an earthling

For so long
Humanity held
That the endpoint of
Unresolved disagreement
Was to fight
Was war
Was death
Those who lived
Resolved the issue

Our mother Earth
Showed
Death
Should only be
The consequence
Of being
The food source
Of another
Of disease
of accident
Of winning access
To reproduction
Or as the
Natural end
To the extent
Of our time

It should not be
To obtain
The property
The lived land
The used materials
Of another
Or
For dominance
Of one group
Over another
Or to prove
One belief
Is better
Than another
Or to prevent
One group
From expressing
Their cultural ways
Within the cultural
Space of another
For all cultures are
Dynamic
And change
With the passage
Of time
Through the input
Of energy
From within and from without
That culture

Cultures are never
Homogeneous
Within the folkways
Of any culture
Are found
Many who
Behave in those ways
And many who do not
Within the tensions
Of every culture
Lie the
Creative passions
That allow
That culture
To grow
To adapt
To reinvigorate
Itself
Every new generation
Of teenagers
Are in some ways
Different from
Their parents
Who forget
How different
They were
From their parents
When they were
Teenagers

Out of these frictions
Arise the ripples
That develop
Into the waves
That move
The same sea
Into different rhythms
That the old
Will see
As destructive
The current generation
As exciting
And the young as something
They can
Rail against
When their time
Is ready
To generate
New ripples

Our mother
Understands these changes
To be the instability
That allows
Evolution
To do its work
Allows the future
To become
More adaptive
Than the past
And so
Mother Earth
Teaches us
Not to
Oppose
Such pressures
With violence
Not to handle
Disagreement
By fighting
Our mother
Assisted
In the growth
Of our minds
So we can
Work out
Other ways
To avoid
Violence

And we
Have learn’t
Our violent ways
Have declined
Greatly
The frequency of wars
Has declined
Dramatically
We murder less
We rape less
Kill our wives
And our children
Less
We still do these things
Too often
But do them
Much less
We have learn’t to be
Less violent
We are earthlings
And we are learning
To be better earthlings

End Part 2
Read Part 1