A Harvest for the World.....

A nation planted, so concerned with gain

As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain

And far too many feelin’ the strain

When will there be a harvest for the world

Many years ago, among many more than I was worthy of receiving, my late, beloved mother bestowed a great gift upon me: she urged me to turn to the written word whenever I was wrestling with one of Life’s great challenges. She challenged me to work it out in print, and I’ve been doing so ever since. And to the extent that I’ve achieved some acclaim over the years for my writing, I don’t take it personally as it’s owed to someone who taught me not only how to live but to love. So, at this time when my heart is aching – and breaking for those ensnared in this unfolding tragedy in which we find ourselves – I turn to the page – now electronic pen and ink, as it were – and hope that in sharing I can contribute in some small way to others finding solutions – or at least comfort – as well.…

More than four decades ago, the Isley Brothers from Teaneck, New Jersey – now the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in this state – asked us a melodic and profound question: when will there be a harvest for the world? At the time, perhaps more appreciative of the melody than the message, we sang along without feeling compelled to consider seriously and answer the query ... but Life has a way of bringing things back around. Now the question is ever more urgent amidst the social distancing required in a deadly global pandemic: indeed, aren’t we all “hopin’ life gets better for the world” right now?

All babies together, everyone a seed

Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need

Love’s bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed

when will there be a harvest for the world

At a time like this, when our very humanity is threatened, we’re forced to remember that, indeed, we’re all “a seed,” Children of God trying to manifest the love “bountiful in us” and not to be (overly) “tarnished by our greed.” But since the time of this song’s composing, ever fewer of us are satisfied and ever more of us are in need (at least in this country). We have all been tarnished by the greed of our society in the succeeding decades and now find ourselves struggling to collaborate in ways that are mutually beneficial.

In fact, the Coronavirus is reminding us just how greatly our perverted economics has warped our perspective: amidst calls from some misguided souls for the elderly to sacrifice themselves for our future well-being, we’re being forced to redefine who the truly “essential workers” in our society are … and it turns out that they’re those whom we’ve largely taken for granted and whose well-being has been evermore challenged as we’ve encouraged the concentration of wealth in ever fewer, stronger hands. Sadly, it’s taken a global pandemic to remind us of the importance of everyday folk, from the people who (re-)stock the recently and frantically depleted shelves of our stores to the orderlies in our hospitals who give care in the most thankless of ways to the delivery people who now bring much of what we eat to our door because it’s no longer safe for us to go out. Yet, while we’ve cut taxes for the already wealthy, it’s been a mighty battle – and one yet to be won – for these hard-working fellow citizens to be paid a living wage. What harvest has this brought us?

Dress me up for battle, when all I want is peace

Those of us who pay the price, come home with the least

Nation after nation, turning into beast

When will there be a harvest for the world

Then it’s perhaps more sad than ironic that as our government attempts to stem the fallout from this modern plague that a full quarter of the aid promised by the newly enacted stimulus legislation will be used for the benefit of corporations, the majority of whose taxes were cut significantly just three years ago and who’ve since invested almost 90% of these gains not in building additional capacity or hiring more workers but in repurchasing their shares and further enriching their shareholders and executives. After this great boondoggle, we’re being asked to mortgage our and our children’s futures a good bit more to protect those who already have so much.

By contrast, those in the greatest need, the everyday folk among us, will receive a modest, one-time payout that may partially (and temporarily) stay the negative economic tide that so/too many of us will feel in the coming months. Of course, many of our peer countries around the world are investing far more heavily in their people’s well-being than we are, which is a most damning reflection of our values-in-action (though, most often and even now, we prefer to profess other, more lofty ones).

And while all this is going on, we’ve seemingly lost focus on those even more distressed and dispossessed than us: funny how we hear so little anymore about the children who’re still in cages at our borders, the refugees scattered amongst war-torn regions of the world, many of whom are literally starving to death and facing unimaginable violence every day. What does this harvest tell us about ourselves?

Gather everyman, gather everywoman

Celebrate your lives, give thanks for your children

Gather everyone, gather all together

Overlooking none, hopin’ life gets better for the world

Sadly and ironically – especially because so/too many of us underestimated the ferocity of this global pandemic – we can now only gather virtually: we’ve behaved ourselves into the reality that gathering in person is a potentially deadly choice. Hopefully, this need to distance ourselves socially will ease eventually, but, hopefully, too, our appreciation for the blessing of being able to do so will not ebb (again).

Yes, it’s taken a tragedy to remind us to cherish and celebrate our lives and give thanks for our loved ones. And perhaps, just maybe, we’ll appreciate the gift of forced unity in combating this mortal challenge when its urgency decreases. Or, as the Isley Brothers would put it, perhaps after this, we’ll live “overlooking none, hopin’ life gets better for the world.”

I have to admit that this has been one of the hardest pieces to compose that I’ve ever felt compelled to write, and I’ve cried my way through most of it.

I’m saddened by the unnecessarily large toll that this modern scourge is wreaking and will ultimately wreak on us.

I’m saddened by the impotence of my righteous anger at those who continue to flaunt the urgent social convention to distance. Truth be told, I’m okay with them endangering their own lives – not to be too cynical, but it’s a damning reality that the herd does thin itself, even in the human species – but I ache for the innocents in their lives whom they’ll endanger and possibly extinguish.

I’m saddened by the reality that, amidst a modern plague that literally has the potential to kill millions of us, we’re ‘led’ by a president and his minions who lie to us repeatedly and imperil us all with their cravenly inhumane egocentricity and selfishness. This being said, I’m at least partially heartened that this righteous anger is finding and will find release as I/we organize to ensure the end of this ignominy come November 3rd.

And I’m saddened by the reality that my generation, the rebellious Baby Boomers of the ’60s who were supposed to change the world for the better, has instead mortgaged both its present and our children’s and grandchildren’s future. To be blunt, if we thought our parents in the Greatest Generation messed up our country, look what we’ve wrought.…

So I’m returned, as ever, to the compassionate and affirming wisdom of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who urged us a half-century ago to engage in a “revolution of values” focused on celebrating and elevating our common humanity by creating the Beloved Community. No, it won’t be easy: there are far too many powerful interests whose selfishness and investments in individual (or, at best, narrowly-distributed collective) well-being must be overcome, but I still have faith. I've chosen to focus on those among us whose humanity has been so manifestly and profoundly positively evidenced during this crisis: indeed, this critical and capacious challenge has brought out the best in so many of us. Let's keep this going even when the crisis subsides eventually.

Partially because I’m old and tired now and also because I’m sanguine, I realize that I can’t do much to make this world a better place … but I can, as Mother Teresa directed, do small things with love consistently. So it’s in this grassroots, bottom-up cause that I ask you to join me: we may not be able to remake the world in its entirety, but each of us can create the Beloved Community in our sphere of influence and circle of concern. And who knows, maybe someday, the more plentiful these individual loci of light become, perhaps they can coalesce into a most elevating and illuminating collective outpouring.

I'm beginning to think that the Beloved Community starts first with each of us and then radiates when we extend it to our neighbor(s). Perhaps some good will come from the Coronavirus: I pray that it reminds us never to become so infatuated with our own progress that we leave behind our humanity – and too many of our neighbors – and that it re-centers us on all that is sacred to us so that we live into this, our individual and collective best lives, every day while we also celebrate and support our neighbors in doing the same. Then, perhaps, we’ll reap the blessing of the Isley Brothers’ vision: truly, a harvest for the world.…

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis

that our loyalties must be ecumenical rather than sectional.

Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to

mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their

individual societies.

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly

concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is in

reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional

love for all men. … When I speak of love, I am

speaking of that force which all the great religions

have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life.

Love is the key that unlocks the door

which leads to ultimate reality.

– The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where Do We Go From Here (1968)