I saw myself
Standing atop a mountain
Not too far from the edge
With a large group of people
But in a place where we could comfortably and safely
Remain
With no fear of falling.
All of us who had gathered there thought we had just arrived
But we had not realized how close we had been to the precipice
For so long.
What prevented us from falling?
Compassion, which was strength, not weakness
Knowledge, which was enlightening, not misleading
Truth, which was mostly consistent, and not as relative as some thought
Cooperation, which led to shared benefits, not defeat in a competitive war
Fellowship, which led to bonding even across lines of disagreement
Understanding, and even love, which overcame any temptation to succumb to hatred.
But there were those who began
To seek power
To worship their own position
To thirst for personal preservation of their status, even when it was an illusion
To sow seeds of discord that could, in their view, put others in “their place’
To pursue revenge for anyone who would question them
And the edge of the mountain where they had assembled
Which no one realized had been thinner than they expected
Began to crumble
Under the weight of these new believers - or doubters, depending on one’s perspective
We saw them fade from our view as the precipice shattered into small pieces
They landed, mostly safely, on the next ledge down
Shouting up at us
Blaming us for their fate
Telling us that they would find a way to bring us down to their level
As we huddled ever closer to one another
Hoping to hold on to all that had preserved us
At the mountaintop.
They did not realize that their new ledge below
Was even weaker than the one
from which they had fallen.
And so, we resolved to try
In some way
To save them
So that we
Could save us all.
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