- One night long ago - back in the days when I was an 80-hour-per-week
hack journalist and living in snow country - I had this strange dream.
-
- This night was cold and clear and I was bundled up with
my wife under several quilts in a drafty farmhouse.
-
- In my dream I was standing before a group of white apparitions
that appeared to be human and bore a faint resemblance to Snow White's
Seven Dwarfs. They were seated at a long table apparently waiting for my
testimony with an annoyed degree of impatience.
-
- Dressed in a dark blue robe with a peaked hat and a broom,
a white-haired woman whose name my memory recalls now as Bibbitybobbityboo
blessed me with stardust from her magic wand and told me that I would always
work for my mother, because she was the real vehicle that brought me into
this world, and that I should strive to maintain that awesomely lovely
purpose in any and all endeavors I chose.
-
- Yet the white misty images of robed men seated behind
the long table covered by a white tablecloth seemed to snicker at her remarks,
and quickly began their own interrogation.
-
- "You fancy yourself a young and intrepid explorer,
ay?" one gnomelike curmudgeon bellowed from the far end of the table.
"Tell me then, what would you do if you discovered that the collective
life force of the human species was a lethal menace to all other life in
the universe, and had to be extinguished in order to preserve the greater
galactic civilization? Which side would you choose, knowing that your species
could go instantly extinct upon the mere whimsy of your own addled perceptions,
and yours alone?"
-
- Operating on the principle of never being afraid of something
you absolutely may not avoid, I responded: "First I'd ask to see the
evidence .... "
-
- And with a teeth rattling roar a gigantic voice that
sounded like Zeus himself rumbled over the assembled fog scene.
-
- "Because the human race, quivering in its own existential
fear, has betrayed its own consciousness by letting fear of the unknown
metastasize into a devil's chorus of diseased songs by which humans are
killing off all life on their own planet.
-
- "And worse, from our point of view, this plague
of fearful murderers is already creeping outward into its own solar system.
The infestation must be stopped for the safety of many others."
-
- Terrified, I instantly began to think, do I trust what
I know? The umpire in me asked: "How do I make this call?"
-
- Why don't I trust what I know? Because I believe in double-checking,
checking back to see if important decisions have been right, and fixing
correctible errors. I've gained more from just that psychological maneuver
than any other thing in life. Be sure of what you're doing. And every time
I've checked back, I've corrected errors that I hadn't previously realized
were harming me.
-
- But to decide the fate of humanity with a single yes-or-no
answer requires an examination much bigger than poor old nobody me can
calculate. That's why my secret weapon has always been to ask somebody
else for their opinion, because we can't live without the herd, and besides
the real beauty in our lives always derives from our love for other people.
Only certain types whom you know all too well spend their lives doing nothing
but taking.
-
- But in this situation, the best I could do was recall
from memory what the masters taught me. I hoped to use the power of the
world's classic sources - especially those which are not taught in schools
(which always try to blunt out independent thought with an acceptable retinue
of opinions which all support the positions of the well-monied status quo
which profits from the master/slave paradigm) - to out argue these heavenly
heavies who I now confronted in my dream.
-
- So I answered his question as best I could.
-
- "Stand securely in your own truth, and be an example
of hospitality and judgment to others. Assuage the fear but don't forget
to hear the message. In this way you may perceive clearly and judge fairly.
In this way could humans yet become a shining example of fairness and hospitality,
a beacon of liberty and love that shone throughout our solar system and
beyond."
-
- A huge wraith possessed of some kind of mechanical recording
device (oh wait, that was an eight-track boom box) snarled from the opposite
end of the table: "Don't be disingenuous with us, you glib fool! We're
talking about the human race, the one that slaughters itself and everything
else over and over and feasts on the gore. Vampirism is the human religion,
as you drink the blood of your savior and proudly wallow in the waving
flags that cover the bodies of your obliterated children. Your vaunted
United States of America develops plagues that it sends to Africa to exterminate
tribe after tribe, and now even these same demons send diseases from airplanes
over all the cities of America.
-
- "The human species is now spreading deadly radioactivity
in probes exploring your solar system, and the Galactic Council has decided
to determine the fate of your world and your species based on the opinion
of a single human soul. Since you've made so much superficial noise advocating
a society based on peace, justice, and honesty, you're it!
-
- "Time's up. What's the answer?"
-
- It was, I reflected, like entering the bardo plane. First
choice? Go to the light. Everyone's automatically eligible. Everyone in
the world has a free pass to heaven the minute they check out. Of course
that's not what the priests tell you. If they did, they wouldn't have jobs.
-
- But that reflexive step into the light is not as easy
as you think, because after a few years on this delightful earth plane
you get entangled with ties that even after death you can't let go of.
I mean, when you tell the perfect person that you'll love them forever,
that stands. That's, as a matter of fact, the strongest force in the universe.
Not even the power of a million suns can wipe that out.
-
- A small, diplomatic voice from near the center of the
table spoke softly: "Humans have not learned the lesson that there
is only one life and it is shared by all, and each only for a time. The
real reason you pile up trinkets is that you hide behind your false belief
that you are immortal, when science has proven beyond all doubt that nothing
is immortal, not even the universe itself, which was likely calved from
yet another universe in the form of a white hole."
-
- Pray all you want, I said silently. Nothing lasts forever,
not even the clumsy and diseased human perception of God. Then when your
forever is gone, you'll have a better view of all the people you're killing.
It might even horrify you, if you're human.
-
- A tall white wraith with a menacing female voice interrupted
impatiently. "The point, fellow gentle spirits, is to determine whether
human life is an untenable threat to all other life in the universe, and
therefore must be exterminated as the primitive and thoughtless vermin
they are."
-
- "It seems clear to all here assembled that the human
failure to have genuine faith in the goodness and fairness of the archetypal
processes of the universe has resulted in this twisted fear that death
is some mysterious place you must take magic potions and utter pious phrases
to avoid. The insanity is caused by trying to avoid something that nothing
in the universe can avoid."
-
- At that point, I took control.
-
- "Humans are animals frightened of their own shadows
because they cannot explain who they are or where they came from. It's
almost if we stepped out of a dream and into history, which - don't forget
- all these creatures are just metaphorical constructions of projections
from our own imaginations.
-
- "In the struggle for survival, savage reflexes are
good. But what we hoped to establish was a flowery sanctuary for our well
being. That's not what we have, because we deny we are hungry animals at
a certain point on the food chain. At the top, mostly."
-
- Another voice spoke from the among the white apparitions
at the table.
-
- "So you're saying that for humans, justice is secondary
to survival. It is that way for all animals on planet Earth, in fact. So
this is exactly the same question we asked you: Once you know that humanity
is a pox to countless trillions of other beings, simply because of its
thoughtlessness wrapped in fearful symmetry, what alternative is there
to a functional eradication program."
-
- I responded:
-
- "Then the only possible chance to save our species
from the collective wrath of all the higher civilizations in our region
of our galaxy is to consciously realize the effects we have on things we
don't even know about. And we can only do that with a philosophy that is
truly everything we should be: loving, discerning, and competent."
-
- A misty white voice quickly answered:
-
- "Precisely what humans have never done and seem
incapable of doing. You can't do that before you realize that all tribes,
all nations, and all worlds must seek peace, justice and honesty. Humans
are known as a species that squanders life because it is so afraid of death.
They clearly don't have the courage, realism or forthrightness to be actualized
members of greater galactic society. So the decision should be easy for
you. Pull the plug."
-
- And there I stood, wanting to defend the human race but
realizing there was a larger, more important life force in the universe
that was the automatic owner of all our possessions and the creator of
all we have ever had. It saddens me to know we must throw away all this
beautiful potential as our human family on planet Earth continues its slide
into madness, disease, and extinction.
-
- "You are the emissary," barked a voice from
the table. "Time is short. Tell them that."
-
- "I promise I will," I said.
-
-
-
-
- John Kaminski is a writer who lives on the Gulf Coast
of Florida whose Internet essays are seen on hundreds of websites around
the world. http://www.johnkaminski.com/
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