“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.”
As you read these words you might at first think they were written to describe the chaotic world in which we live, but they were composed after World War I by William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet.
Yeats’ lines have been used many times since to highlight other crises. He was not hopeful in the poem, “The Second Coming.”
He saw the emergence of troublesome times when reason and order were diminished, much like we see today not only in our nation but around the world.
Sometimes poetry speaks more to how we feel about things than all the charts, graphs and statistics we employ.
These days fear seems a common feeling.
What do we fear? Mostly that the world and our nation are spinning out of control, so much so that the changes seem threatening to our way of life.
Think about these fears. Whether real or imaginary they feel real, no matter your political persuasions.
Inflation may be lower, but prices are not. Check out your grocery or heating bills lately and compare them with those from last year. Costs are rising in ways that touch most of our everyday lives.
Meanwhile housing costs keep going up. Ever try to rent an apartment or more difficult still, buy your first home? Home prices and interest rates have exceeded the abilities of most to afford. Many younger people face the dilemma of not feeling they can surpass or even match their parents lifestyles.
People are shot in malls, places of worship, parades and schools. Nowhere feels safe. And Congress and state legislatures seem unwilling or unable to limit the sale of even military style weapons.
Our southern borders are inundated with asylum seekers and our cities overcome with their needs. Immigration seems out of control.
And our do-nothing Congress seems unable to do much to help stop overflow at our border. A small wing of one party opposes immigration reforms they helped draft, while arguing over support for democracy in Europe.
And we have two presidential candidates, neither of whom seems capable of getting out of the way of his own words or actions.
The truth is that change won’t happen by telling people not to feel what they feel. The best way to change feelings about things is to change the activities that lead to these feelings in the first place. And this may take more time and energy than we have now.
So hang on to your seatbelt, keep calm and collected, and hope we make it safe and secure until 2025.
John C. Morgan is an author and teacher whose weekly commentaries appear at readingeagle.com.
