Dear Poet Friends, being fond of Art, I wanted to compose on
this topic for a long time in a simplified form! Egyptian Art and
Architecture influenced the Early Greeks, who in turn influenced the Romans and other civilizations! Initially Art and architecture, religion and culture, were all closely inter-related! Real distinction emerged with the Italian Renaissance. Here I have used only a portion of my personal notes. Hope you find this interesting to read! Sorry for the length! Kindly give Comments after you have managed to read the entire portion in your spare time. Thanks, -Raj

INTRODUCTION TO THE STORY
OF WESTERN ART IN VERSE:
          PART ONE
    * BY RAJ NANDY

INTRODUCTION
Art over the centuries has been variously defined,
But an all embracing definition is rather hard to find!
Ayn Rand defined Art as a recreation of reality according to
artist’s values, his view of existence, and choice;
Who recreates by a selective rearrangement of the elements
of reality, and not simply out of a void!
Study of Art History is a study of man’s creative evolution;
A progress of his wakened consciousness, and a restless
striving towards perfection!
The progress of his mind, taste and skill, which has gradually
evolved through past traditions;
Finding ultimate expression in his multi-faceted creations!
I commence this story from its earliest days, and mention those
Ancient Civilizations which influenced Art in many ways.
Art has been greatly influenced by religion, culture and history;
Therefore, knowing these aspects becomes necessary to
fully appreciate this Art Story!

PREHISTORIC STONE AGE ART:
Let us take a ride on the magic carpet of History, down
past millenniums to begin our Art Story;
Right into the ancient Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic
Eras of the Stone Age,
When early humans left their creative imprints on rock
surfaces and on walls of caves!
Long before the evolution of any proper coherent speech
or communication,
In some 350 caves of France and Spain are seen paintings
of large wild animals like horses, antelopes and bison;
Bearing witness to the story of gradual human evolution!
The cave paintings of Chauvet, Cosquer, and Lascaux, date
between 8000 and 1700 BC,
Drawn by nameless and faceless people who emerged from
an inhospitable Ice Age;
Those nomadic tribes who were hunter-gatherers living in
pre-historic caves!
The Story of Art therefore begins before recorded History,
Pieced together by scholars with the help of science and
archeology!
During the Neolithic Period beginning around 8,000BC,
Ancient man became gradually sedentary, engaging in
agriculture and animal husbandry!
With these nomads settling down in small communities,
Art became mystical and monumental in range;
As seen in the megalithic (large stone) structures of the
famous Stonehenge!
This type of post and lintel structure is also found in ancient
Egyptian architecture, and later in Greece as its special
feature!
Art History spans the entire history of mankind,
Right from the pre-historic days, up to our modern times!
Man’s everlasting quest for immortality lies etched on
rocks and raised stone edifices, defying marauding Time!

MESOPOTAMIAN ART (3500-300BC) :
Let us now travel fast forward on our magic carpet to reach
the Fertile Crescent,
Where the Tigress and the Euphrates Rivers flow, to the
Ancient Civilization of the Sumerians! (3500-2300BC)
The birth of civilization has been traced to Southern
Mesopotamia, where the Sumerians built their first cities,
As the earliest River Valley Civilization around 3500 BC!
It was a period when writing got invented in its earliest
Cuneiform form;  (around 3400 BC)
When Patriarch Abraham established the worship of a Single
God, in a revolutionary religious reform! (Judaism)
Mesopotamian Civilization as the source of our earliest
surviving Art dates back to 3500BC;
When major civilizations like the Sumerian, Akkadian,
Babylonian, Hitties, Assyrian, and the Persians, in this
chronological sequence, contributed to Art History!
Mesopotamian Art in general glorified their powerful rulers
and their connection with divinity;
Reflected on their city gates, palace complexes and ziggurats,
are scenes of both victorious wars and their prosperity!
Art was then highly functional and repetitive; depicting
love of beauty, a sense of order, and power of hierarchy,
- in their sculptures and motifs.
However, no signatures were ever found bearing the name
of the Artist!
It is interesting to note that both the potter’s wheel and the
cart wheel, made their first appearance around 3500 BC
and 3200 BC respectively;
With the Sumerians contributing to art and culture, and the
progress of Human Civilization immensely!
(Ziggurats are semi-pyramid like structures with steps, a temple complex located in the center of all ancient Sumerian cities-states! Saragon the Great of Akkad from the North, defeated the Sumerians in the South, & united entire Mesopotamia around 2300 BC, for the first time in Mesopotamian History, & they ruled for 200 years.)

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART :(3000 BC -500BC)
Next we travel to an isolated area of north-east Africa,
Where the White Nile flows down from Lake Victoria.
The Nile enters Upper Egypt traveling through Sudan,
Is joined by the Blue Nile at Khartoum to become one!
Continues its flow north through Egypt Lower, flowing
into the Mediterranean as the World’s longest river!
Historian Herodotus had called Egypt ‘the gift of the Nile’;
Ancient Egypt became a rich treasure trove of art and
architecture for all times!
The Nile valley area was protected by the desert on its
east and the west;
In the north by the Mediterranean, and towards the
south by a rugged mountainous terrain!
Annual flooding of the Nile along with an effective
irrigational network,
Ensured Egypt’s prosperous stability, congenial for her
many innovative architectures and art works!
Egyptian Art got shaped by her geography, mythology
and her polytheistic religion;
Also by their preoccupation with after-life and belief in  
the immortal soul’s continuation;
Thus elaborate funeral rites were performed by priests for  
the body’s preservation by mummification! *
(’KA’= was a real astral twin or stellar double of an Individual, which continued to exist even after death, requiring the same sustenance as the humans, so food offerings were made in the coffins! ‘BA’= shaped like a human-headed bird, composed of non-physical attributes of an Individual. ‘BA’ collected the deceased’s personality after death from the mummified remains & united it with the ‘KA’, making a person complete; thereby making it possible for the person to be reborn as ‘AKH’ (Star), - in its ultimate unchanging form, to join Osiris in the ‘Happy Fields’! Since this journey to the next world was fraught with danger, magical funerary spells & rites were performed by the priests, with incantations from the ‘Book of the Dead’, inside the funeral chamber of the Pyramid!)

Art During Old, Middle, and New Kingdom Period:
Egyptian Art was concerned with ensuring continuity of the
universe, their Gods, the King and the people;
A projection into eternity a version of reality pure and free
from all earthly evil!
Therefore in ancient Egyptian society, conformity over
individuality was always encouraged;
Artists worked in groups with conservative adherence to
rules, order and form,
And all individual artistic initiatives strictly discouraged !
Their earliest pyramids the Mastaba, the Step, and the Bent
Pyramids were all prototypes;
While the Great Pyramid of Giza built for Pharaoh Kufu,
- was the first true pyramid which still survives!
Art comes down to us as ‘funerary art’ designed for the tombs,
Which was to accompany the royalty in their journey to an
afterlife, with its symbolic forms!
This symbolism is seen in their paintings, statues and architecture;
In vibrant color codes of their paintings as a special feature!
Where White was the symbol of purity, Black for death and night;
Green for vegetation or new life, Blue for water and the sky;
Red for life and victory, and Yellow like Gold as the flesh of the
Gods and also the Sun God ruling the sky!
Thanks to Jean-Francois Champollion’s translation of the Rosetta
Stone, (1822)
We are able to decipher many mysteries of the Ancient Egyptian
with the cracking of the Hieroglyphic Code!
Larger than life statues with poise and austere harmony at the
Luxor Temple complex survive;
Symbolic of the individual’s status, while creating zones of
strangeness for imagination to thrive!
(’Matsaba’= Egyptian for ‘bench’, referred to bench shaped pyramids;
“Step Pyramids” = were like benches placed one on top of the other in
a tapering form going up vertically!)

The Old Kingdom Period covers a five hundred years span
of Ancient Egyptian History, (2686-2181BC)
Known as the ‘Age of Pyramids’, with Pharaohs from the
Third to the Sixth Dynasty!
“The World fear Time, but Time fears only the Pyramids”,
- is an Ancient Egyptian Proverb;
Whose ‘heterogeneous structure’ made it earthquake
proof, making Time to reluctantly serve! #
Here we find formalized figures with long slender bodies,
idealized proportions and large staring eyes;
Where Kufu’s Great Pyramid of Giza raises its mighty head
as the highest, on the west bank of the Nile;
And the mighty Sphinx guard the entrance to those ancient
royal tombs, though defaced, still survive!
These pyramids were like Pharaoh’s getaways to eternity,
An insurance to an afterlife of peace and prosperity!
(# Pyramids with stone blocks of different sizes & shapes made them
Earthquake resistant; & use of pink granite in the inner chambers
made them erosion resistant against Time!)

The Middle Kingdom Period (2040-1650 BC) :
Following 150 years of civil disorder Theban ruler Mentuhotep
the Second, reunified Egypt and ruled up to Nubia, (Sudan)
And began the Classical Era when Block Statues appear,
indicating political stability;
When artisans worked with bronze and copper alloys, designing
exquisite jewelry!
Kings now preferred to be buried in secret tombs, Pyramids
having lost their appeal,
And work began on the west bank of the Nile, in the Valley of
Kings!
(Inside those rock cut ‘funerary temples’ on the East bank of the
Nile, opposite Ancient Kingdom of Thebes ; Pharaohs from the
Early and Late New Kingdom Periods were buried, including
Tutemkhamen.)

Early New Kingdom Period (1550 -1295 BC):
Between the Middle Kingdom and this Era, Art remained
static for almost a hundred years,
When the Hyksos from the Near East fought the weak Theban
Rulers!
In 1550 BC Theban Prince Ahmose reunited Egypt, and was
succeeded by able rulers, who ushered in the Golden Age!
Art works continued to maintain its basic traditional style,
With successive Kings from the 18th Dynasty consolidating
their kingdom’s wealth and power all the while!
But Egypt witnessed a change with an innovative style in Art,
When Amenhotep IV in 1353 BC became King, initiating a
fresh start!
This king changed his name to ‘Akhenaten’, the spirit of Aten,
-- ‘The disk of the Sun’;
Abandoned the pantheons of Gods with Aten as the ‘sole God’,
and a religious revolution had begun!
His new capital city of Amarna, 200 miles north of Thebes,
Got decorated with a new kind of art work to make it complete!
The statues now appear more realistic displaying emotions,
With fluidity of movement, unlike those rigid earlier creations!
The artistic talent of this Amarna Period gets best exemplified,
In the exquisite bust of Nefertiti, Akhenaten’s Great Royal Wife!
Regarded as ‘icon of international beauty’, a great archeological
find ! **
(Discovered by a German team of Archeologists in 1912 at Amarna! This 19 inch long limestone Nefertiti statue weighs around 20 kg, now housed in Berlin Museum; comparable only to the artistic Golden Mask of Tutankhamen!)

King Tutankhamen (1336-1327 BC):
Akhenaten’s unpopular rule was short-lived, with those humiliated
Theban priests calling him the ‘Heretic King’!
A nine year old boy Tutankhamen (‘The living image of Amun’),
was next to succeed him!
King Tut restored the worship of Amun, in a back-lash against
Akhenaten;
Shifted the royal palace back to Thebes, with the religious center
at Karnak once again!
King Tut’s short ten year’s rule remained buried in 3000 year’s
of Egyptian History,
Till Howard Carter found his richly laden intact tomb, in the
Valley of the Kings! (1922)
King Tut’s priceless and exquisitely carved golden face mask,
reflected the exalted standard of art work;
Weighing ten kilos, inlaid with semi-precious stones, and eyes
made of obsidian and quarts!
With the King’s early death, the 18th Dynasty of Pharaohs came
to an abrupt end,
And the 19th and 20th Dynasties of the Late Kingdom Period
commenced!
The famous rock temple of Abu Simbel now got built, under the
warrior and builder Ramses II, one of Egypt’s greatest Kings!


Pharaoh Ramses-II of the Late Kingdom Period :
Here I sweep across centuries of Egyptian History, to mention
King Ramses-II’s contribution to our Art Story!
In Shelly’s famous poem titled “Ozymandias of Egypt” he is
immortalized; (Greeks called Ramses-II “Ozymandias”!)
And as the Pharaoh associated with Moses in the movie “The
Ten Commandments”, he is popularized!
Egyptian Art is intrinsically bound with its religion, pyramids,
hieroglyphs, and architecture;
With a concentrated focus on ‘afterlife’ as its special feature!
In 1270 BC young Ramses took over from Seti the First,
And his rule for a period of 66 long years did last!
As the third Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, he had ruled with a
firm hand;
Recovered lost territories from the Hittites and the Nubians,
- earlier captured Egyptian lands!
He enlarged the territories of Egypt ensuring prosperity and
stability;
Became renowned as the famous Warrior and Builder King
of Ancient Egyptian History!
Ramses-II had expanded most of the temples, as recorded in
the artistic motifs and hieroglyphic symbols;
Here a special mention must be made of the Temples of Luxor,
Karnak, and Abu Simbel !

Temples of Luxor and Karnak in Ancient Thebes:
Ancient Thebes was located on the eastern bank of the Nile,
where the modern City of Luxor stands;
Thebes was once the capital of the 11th and 18th Dynasties,
And the power and religious center of all Egyptian land!
Gets mentioned in the 9th Book of Homer’s ‘Iliad’ where “heaps
of precious ingots gleam, the hundred-gated Thebes”!
Excavation work began in Thebes during the late 19th century;
And the gradual unearthing of the Temples of Luxor and
Karnak, added a new dimension to Egypt’s Art Story!
It must be remembered always, that the Ancient Egyptians in
those early days,
Structured their temple architecture to the point of ‘Sacred Art’!
With their knowledge of astronomy and geometry, they
aligned their temples so perfectly,
That the light of the rising sun fell on the temple’s innermost
sanctuary! (Temple of Abu Simbel is a great example,)
Where the Egyptian priests, who were also the artists, healers,
mathematicians, astronomers and scribes;
In dimly lit incense-filled sanctuaries performed the sacred rites!
The temples symbolized the cross roads of the cosmos, where
the divine and the mortal met in perpetual harmony!
These divine scenes were integrated into the very fabric of the
Egyptian society through chants and rituals;
With cosmological symbols of magical hieroglyphs, which
priests alone could transcribe in those days!
(Thebes began to decline rapidly after Alexander the Great
established the port-city of Alexandria as Egypt’s new Capital
around 332 BC !)

Luxor Temple built by Amenhotep-III, was dedicated to God
Amun, his wife Mut and son Khonsu, - the Theban Triad;
Tutankhamen and Ramses-II expanding the temple during the
New Kingdom Period!
Creator God Amun became assimilated with the Sun God Re;
Was worshipped in Thebes, and in the cult centers of Luxor and
Karnak, - as Amun-Re!
The walls and columns of these cult temples were decorated
with carved and painted relief,
Depicting the interaction with Gods, and military exploits of
Egyptian Pharaohs and Kings!
The sun temple of Amenhotep-III at Luxor has many columns
resembling papyrus bundles,
Symbolic of the primeval marsh from where Creation was
believed to have unfolded !
A Sphinx Alley excavated between Luxor an

The only reason I don't believe in god
Is that every time I call out and wait
For a response,
I hear one
But it isn't the shining distant
Palace of foretold heaven
But instead,
My own thoughts knocking around
In a hollow skull
That I found in the gutter
A long time ago and decided
It was about time I had fun
And ran with it as a joke
A great joke, a cosmic joke
The joke
Laughing all the way to
The enlightenment that
the completely Lost
sob around but never
Penetrate
The world turns its humble face
From the oscillating bits that make
Up their fibre of being and exist
Only so we may exist alongside them
Because the world it seems, has
Matured too much, gone to far
To fraternize with the original
Few who will outlast any
Newly minted spirit the string-pulling
Puppets could muster up
Inside their cobwebbed memories
Devoid of the experience
Because that's all we can be, isn't it?
Memories
The fools will cry
But the enlightened ones will laugh on
And on realizing that
Failure, being the apex, is forever
And success is singular
Letting themselves drop so far
That they find themselves
Beyond the game and petty rules
In a place were fire whispers
And the trees don't mind
Being burnt
Because only what comes
Can be the true redeemer
The past is only set in stone because
The mason has given up his future
Along with the Good Christians
Who have resigned themselves
Not even bothering for a formal
Agreement or deed to their
Autonomy
And who when the next jesus walks along the lonely path to the hill
After fighting a war with
A few close friends more lost
Will stand and throw rocks like Romans and not see the flow of what could be
And then in the same age advanced be called the murderers of the new prophet
This sad excuse of a worldly Society
Rests thrashing in
The final throes
Legitimizing non reality
And the world of professionals who
Have turned reality on its head
Turning the world into a place where
Cloth creates flesh and not
The order of flesh atop
The holy hierarchy lacking a point
Living in the base
And all we are left with are crises
That no one can afford to fight
We strap ourselves to the ride to hell
Not seeing that the man who pulls the lever is just the same as the one
Who burns first.
The people search for a god in the sky
The more adventurous  with
Chemicals coursing through
their veins
But god is in the grass
Speaking without words
But in instances
Moments of eternity where
All that was, time and space
Flow in and all that could be but hasn't becomes formalized as occurrence
Flows out leading to the inventive
Moments of bliss just beyond
Grasping hands.

there was a lot of love
in this decade
the people joined
a peace parade

the air was filled
with an upbeat atmosphere  
the flower children
were on a higher sphere

tunes started to sound
like they'd been set free
the musicians weren't
bound by a formalized key

fashion underwent
a considerable change
whereupon the beaded
look wasn't so strange

may these scant clues
aid all of you
in finding what decade
I'm taking you to

Black lives never mattered huh?

Hating on Asians is doing what for you?

Latino community. I feel your pain even more so still!

Stop stressing me about white privledge when it's all the colors
that bring life to everything that I enjoy and live for!

Never want to admit it.

HATE GOING TO WALMART!

Why we on land?

Living on a rock. Fighting over dirt!?

Whomp whomp whomp.

I probably sound like adult talking to a child

from the Peanut series. If I uninterest you.

Forgive me. My English is not perfect.
All of us were forced to make a place not meant for us home.

I refuse to become conditioned
and confined to a state of mind

Where I should withhold my opinion
or not fight for what I believe in.

Believe in your story. It holds your purpose.


When it comes to any of us.

You can listen to who you want!

Live your life. Have fun and be free!

You should take your own advice!

It's hard to hear you over the fact.

When my ideas crash into thoughts of doubt

My brain constantly screaming at my heart.

" NOBODY listens to me!"

Misunderstandings occur, it's not about what is said, it's the concept.

Our words cast spells. Let your actions take you

to great lengths to succeed and prevail!
Only so much words can do on paper or in text.

What is right?
From taking all that is left?

Holding my composure.
All behind this mask.
I'm better off anonymous
All sides of me must stay dominate
Navigate nicely through the nonsense
It feels that there is no other option but

sneezes


I'm allergic to ******* and ignorance intolerant!

I'm not religious.
I notice there's a war between Christians and Agnostics

What could a God do?
An interference could raise a universal conflict!

I do have faith in the future
Big Brother what is it now?
Our future leaders
What can we do?
Fight the system?
Do we override it?
System error. Time to reboot.
Allow me to just plea the fifth.

I understand the different between polar opposites.

All these people in control
Who's going to be the one
to BREAK THESE CHAINS?!
I'll BREAK A WALL
BEFORE I BURN A BRIDGE!
Abolish child slavery and **** culture
I NEVER SUPPORTED ANY OF THIS!


I prayed for strength and promised my future children

Before life was even given

My inner peace would benefit more than just one life.

Keep living! I'll never jeopardize anyone's security.  

Safety and love. Should be normalized.

Times have changed. People remain the same. We're
still searching for love. When it exist and it's around our essence.
Maybe, it will be our biggest struggle as humans.
==

Why you bicker about having common sense

While it's not even localized or fully utilized.

There are matters, in which myself on any degree

cannot come to terms on offering helpful hands just to compromise!

I will seek the truth in all formalized lies.

We are part of a movement on the rise

I'll live for these babies.

I'll die for these babies!

The evolution is coming.

A new wave of change

The light of a glorious star

lives more than just one!

it's now the time!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!!!!!

avian music,
march past of herons follows,
sunset formalized!

bottle caps bouncing on cement floors
played in a constant loop,
cigarette ash fraying the
consistency of the tapping,
tapping and tapping on a window pane  
with only rain reciprocating,
if only any of this was real,
real,
real life is but only a manifestation
of manipulation of the things,
or by the things that make it easier,
a broken clock synchronized
with progression
of this silent
lunged apparition and
mobility has never been
defined by an antonym
until now,
now,
now formalized mistakes
carve themselves
inside the walls
of a crimson tower and shine out
as the falsities of my “finest hour”,
hour,
our lives are controlled by vices,
vice grips and patterned slices
solidify consistency in off-timed
8th notes that tick
tick,
tick like the broken clock.

Chapter 1

Do we no longer share anything of value?




Chapter 2

Do we no longer value anything we share?



Chapter 3:  Two Scenarios

Scenario 1 (1956):  A young boy gets in trouble at school for being insolent and talking back to the teacher. The teacher punishes the boy by keeping him after school, making him clean up the classroom, and by writing ‘I must learn to be more polite and respectful’ on the blackboard 100 times.

The boy’s younger sister goes home at the regular time and tells his mother why he is still at school.

The boy leaves the school at 5:00 pm and stops in to the corner store for some penny candy.  The storekeeper refuses to serve him because he heard about the boy’s behavior earlier today.  The boy leaves and walks to the beginning of his street.  There he is met by Mrs. Wagner who tells him she is very disappointed in what she has heard.  He decides to cut through the playground and take the shortcut to his back yard.  

As he crosses the basketball court, which backs up to the fence separating his back yard from the park, Mr. Johnson, the custodian, shouts out to him and asks him to stop.  “I can’t believe what I heard from the other boys about your behavior at school today, and I’m very disappointed in you. You’re better than that and you know it. Don’t come back to the playground until you’ve learned how to act right.”

Finally, he climbs over the chain link fence to his backyard.  It is here that his mother sees him for the first time, and he can tell she has been crying.  “How can you shame me like this when we’ve worked so hard to raise you in the right way? Your grandmother left earlier and even she doesn’t want to speak to you, and you know you’re her favorite — go straight to your room.”

At last, his father comes home and is appraised of what happened earlier today.  He walks into the boy’s room and asks him if there’s anything he has to say for himself?  Wisely, the boy says no.  With that, the father ’grounds’ the boy, taking away all privileges for an entire month.  He also tells the boy he will continue to stay after school, and clean the classroom, until the teacher says he’s learned his lesson.  The parents then call the teacher at home to apologize for the boy’s actions.

The next day, both parents take the boy to school and make him apologize to the teacher in front of the entire class.

This behavior is never repeated by the young boy, and he becomes a model of what respect for authority and right thinking should be.

Scenario 2 (2024):  A young boy gets in trouble at school for being insolent and talking back to the teacher. The teacher tries to discipline the boy, but he just laughs and walks away.  The teacher follows the young boy to the entrance of the school, as he continues to laugh at her remonstrations while trying to make fun of her for doing her job.

Without permission, the boy leaves school early.

On the way home he stops at the convenience store and, while the clerk isn’t looking, slips 2 candy bars under his coat and sneakily walks out.  Two high school kids in a car stop him at the entrance to the playground and say, “shouldn’t you be in school?”  When he tells the two what the teacher did, they both just laugh and say: “Yeah, she’s still the same $#@%^&*$% that she was when we had her 4 years ago.”

The high school kids should have been in school too …

Then the boy enters the gates of the playground near his house.  Three other boys, truant from a local parochial school, are hiding behind the equipment building, smoking cigarettes, and listening to their I-Pods.  When he tells them what happened at school they say: ‘Yeah, all teachers are pains in the ****.  They don’t know how to do anything but boss us around. My parents said if they were any good, they’d all get real jobs.”

The boy climbs the fence and enters his back door.  Both parents are working, so he takes the candy bars out and starts playing video games as he eats them.  His mother gets home first at 5:30 and then his father at 6:00. Neither even asks him how school went that day. He knows he can’t go back until he tells them, so as they are both catching up on their emails he starts his tale.

Only halfway into his story, his mother says: “She raised her voice and yelled at you?” His father then says: “I’ll have her job for that!”  They immediately call the principal of the school demanding the teacher be reprimanded and even threatening legal action if something is not done.  After hanging up, they start phoning other parents soliciting support against the teacher and the school.

They demand to speak at the next PTA meeting lambasting the unfortunate teacher for trying to do the right thing.  The teacher is put on probation for ‘action causing the boy to leave school’ and reprimanded formally by the superintendent.  The teacher decides that enough is enough, and this is her last year trying to teach young people not only academics — but manners and respect.

                                 Another Great Educator Is Lost

The boy goes on to become a recurring problem ultimately ending up in juvenile hall.

Where are the common values, and moral structure, that as a country we used to share?  Where is the support for doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do?  Where are the keepers of the lost moral code that made our country great?

Where you ask?  They are lost and absorbed in the division that self-interest has created. GONE — and the greatness that real community and shared values could provide — are gone with them.

                                           Distance is shared
                                    by those striving to be close
                                          Valuing each other
                                      sharing each other’s pain



Chapter 4: Time and Distance

What separates the two scenarios in the previous chapter are time and distance.  We say them so often, and so often together, but are they really connected?  Is the first scenario only separated from the second by time and half a century?  Or is it something much more sinister and more difficult to deal with when recognized?

Some things once lost are maybe impossible to re-attain.

               Do we no longer share anything of value?  
                Do we no longer value anything we share?

In our nation, and within the American culture, I may look different than you.  My skin may be light while yours is dark. My ancestors may have come from Europe and yours from China.  My religion may be Christian while yours is not, but together over the last 200 years we have created the world’s greatest economy, defeated the most evil totalitarian dictators, and created an educational system that has produced doctors and architects, artists and engineers, that have changed the very surface and fabric of our world …

                          And All Mostly For The Better

We did these great things because we did them in concert.  We were a nation that was pulling together, having put our differences aside, for a goal we shared and the common good. We all believed in the accepted moral code, and we didn’t need to quote the Ten Commandments or the Torah to make it work.  It was ingrained deeply inside of us.  We didn’t need legislation to enforce our behavior.  Our actions came from a court of a much higher order.

                           That All Seems To Be Changing

Now, instead of finding more ways to unify ourselves, we spend our efforts building ever more fences that serve to divide.  We have formalized these divisions and given them names.  We are divided racially, culturally, intellectually, politically, sexually, and maybe what’s most insidious, economically.  The America that was the great ‘melting ***’ of our differences has turned into a great magnifying glass — enlarging and enhancing what can only serve to keep us apart.

The second generation Italian-American bricklayer, who couldn’t sign up for World War 2 fast enough, is replaced in many instances today by someone who feels all service to their country is an inconvenience at best, and wasted time at worst.  The great neighborhoods and playgrounds that brought us together when young have been replaced by pockets of isolated self-interest where America, and its freedoms, are just a tool used to achieve a narrow and self-serving agenda.

Much of this we have brought upon ourselves by electing officials more concerned with being politically correct than doing what’s right.  This has undermined the very bedrock of America itself. We have been ‘lulled to sleep’ by the symptomatic curing of these populist falsehoods, while the underlying disease plaguing our great nation is allowed to fester and grow.  

The ‘Me Too’ or ‘I’ generation is becoming the victim of its own false ideology, drowning in an egomaniacal sea of despair.  This manifests itself in the social and medical ailments of the last 50 years.  From ADHD, obesity, nervous anxiety disorders, and possibly autism, our nation suffers from a stigma of its own making.  The growth of professions like Psychiatry and Law are examples of how insular we’ve become and how intent we are at getting ‘our bigger piece of the pie’ at any cost. ‘Shrink’ visits, and litigation, seem to be the new badges of honor in a country that has lost its way.

Maybe it’s a good thing that wars are not fought conventionally anymore.  A high ranking Major General was recently quoted as saying that he didn’t think we could fight a war like World War 2 today.  He didn’t believe enough men could put their personal agendas aside and agree to fight for a common cause.  The meaning of the word common has come to mean something undesirable and to be avoided.

This same country, America, is passing laws to protect those living here illegally, while some of those who proudly served in her defense go hungry, homeless, and destitute.  I believe it should be mandatory that to hold public office you must first serve in the military or some form of public service. Then you will have an appreciation for the many who have sacrificed while asking for nothing in return. Many Veteran’s Groups come together today, not to be honored as they should, but rather to share their struggles in a world that seems to have lost interest in them and the great sacrifices that they made.  

                               This Was Not Always The Case

Today, America competes internationally with countries like India and China that have much more homogenous cultures and seem much better at pulling together to reach a common end by thinking along the same lines.  I travel to these countries, and people there seem to have discovered what we have forgotten. They know that two working in harmony can accomplish more than two working on their own, and that two plus two ‘together’ equals more than four.

                When People Come Together, The Whole Really Is
                          Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts

Thinking along the same lines has nothing to do with a loss of personal or intellectual freedom.  It has to do with the affirmation that we can accomplish much more together than we can on our own.  It also means we are stronger when we come together. This is true both economically, socially, and culturally.  

There have been some great quarterbacks, who turned mediocre overnight, when they lost either a great running back or wide receiver.  Staring into the eyes of those other 10 men in the huddle is one of the great examples of what can be accomplished when all think with like minds.  In that huddle are men of all races, religions, and ethnicities, but they put those differences aside for 60 minutes to accomplish their goal.

                         As A Country, We Should Do The Same

The play that is called in the huddle is not to benefit just one player, it’s to benefit the whole team.  They either win or lose together based on the value system or game plan that they all agree upon.  It’s a simplistic analogy, but it’s magic and it works.

A ‘Call To Arms’ used to be enough for most men to lay aside personal interests and put their country first.  Today, during most times of crises, there are opinion polls, with spin doctors and talking heads, on the various TV cable news shows, telling you what to think or maybe reinforcing what you want to hear based on your personal agenda.  You can usually find exactly what you want to hear if you pick the ‘right’ channel out of the dozens available.  The news doesn’t get read anymore, but rather interpreted and spun, and both political parties are guilty of its manipulation.

                              And We’re All The Worse For It

The basic tenets of right and wrong do not change.  What they apply to does, but the principles do not.  They form the platform that a democratic society is built upon. If we can’t de-factionalize and de-polarize ourselves from this mess we’ve gotten into, how can we take the next steps forward to better ourselves collectively and become more than we currently are?