The first agreement

Fear begets violence.
Blame becomes assault.

Projecting our fear of harm,
we harm others.
To keep our place in the world
we try to remove others.
But it never works:
attempting to destroy each other
we only damage the world.

To “form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, and insure domestic Tranquility,”
our first agreement has to be
to live together.
To accept the other, regardless of how vile.
To live, even side by side,
with those we fear and blame and revile.

For they are here;
the only way to be without them
is to be without life.

Our first agreement and our highest goal
is not how we shall win,
but how we shall live together.
For either we live together
or we do not live.

 

Steve Garnass-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net July 15, 2024