Globalization Part V

[Francis Don Daniels]

"A culture is not a collection of relics or ornaments,
but a practical necessity, and its corruption invokes calamity.
A healthy culture is a communal order of memory...
It reveals the human necessities and the human limits.
It clarifies our inescapable bonds to the earth and to each other."
Wendell Berry

~~

A flat world
is a chaos of clones.

In a flat world
all is homogeneous
and servile
to its agreements.

The maxim of survival
is adapt, lest
ye shall succumb.

Thus follows
unreasoned acts
by man.

Ages past
a flat world,
out of ignorance
or postulate,
suppressed and
controlled.

In a flat world
group agreement trumps
the individual, no matter
how learned or competent.

But even in a flat world
there comes to be
one who rises
above the chaos
with opened eyes
sees the actual world.

As one Italian
named Columbus
undaunted and unafraid
to fall from Earth's edge,
unleashed his dreams
to venture across
the ominous seas.
~~

It had been another
sleepless night for Chad,
tossing and turning
between inner screams,
while stewing in agony
the same question,
"How could things go so wrong?"

A voice finally answered,
"Just wait it out. You'll get
what you want once the bulls
retake the market."

Chad was vulnerable,
afraid things would
only get worse.
He desperately wanted
to believe the hidden voice.

It seemed much easier,
to compromise,
just to pick up
where he'd left off.
Continue to wait tables
until Wall Street rebounded
and all would be
as he'd dreamed.

But, alas, he knew
the map was wrong,
not only for him
but so many others.

He'd learned one lesson
in a flat world-
there's no guarantees
save the moment.

There was no turning back
to trust the evil
that knows not
the meaning of trust.

"I've come too far,
seen your degradation
and felt your pain
and despair!"
Chad blasted back
at the voice.

Suddenly,
the lump in his throat
and the nausea
in his stomach blew.

There was a shift
in Chad's beingness
he didn't understand
just yet...

Something had changed.

A throwing off of chains
and shackles, no longer
fettered by fear, lifted
from sinking mire
of shifting sands
to walk straight and tall
one's chosen path
a free, determined
man.

Demand for improvement
welled up inside of Chad
fomenting as if ready
to gush from his pores
like a volcano poised
to change forever
the face
of Earth.
~~

A flat world
is a fixed and
false idea.

It is a lie.

As all lies
it vanishes
in the light
of Truth.
~~

Copyright 2009 Francis Don Daniels
All Rights Reserved.