It's a Possibility

ITS A POSSIBILITY

"We can no longer exist in the contradiction between what we say in our words and deeds as an expression of our fear and separation , and what we hear in the cry of our hearts expressing connectedness and wholeness and the recognition that we are ONE". John Denver

I am one who believes in preventive measures, whether it has to do with health care or crime or war. I would like to share with you a poem about prevention that I found in my chiropractor's office. This is the story of "An Ambulance Down in the Valley".

"An Ambulance Down in the Valley"

T'was a dangerous cliff as they freely confessed,

Though to walk by its edge was quite pleasant.

But over its edge slipped a Duke and an Earl

And it had fooled many a peasant.

The people said something would have to be done,

But their projects did not at all tally.

Some said "Put a fence around the edge of the cliff,"

Others, "an ambulance down in the valley."

The lament of the crowd was profound and quite loud,

As their hearts overflowed with great pity:

But the ambulance carried the cry of the day,

As it spread to the neighboring cities.

So a collection was made to accumulate aid,

And dwellers in highway and alley.

Gave dollars and cents not to furnish a fence,

But an ambulance down in the valley.

"For the cliff is all right if you're careful", they said

"And if folks ever slip and are falling;

It's not the slipping and sliding that hurts them so much

As the shock down below when they're stopping."

And so for the years these mishaps occurred,

Quick forth would the rescuers sally,

To pick up the victims who fell from the cliff,

With the ambulance down in the valley.

Said one in his plea, "It's a marvel to me

That you'd give much greater attention,

To repairing results than to curing the cause;

Why you'd much better aim at prevention,

For the mischief, of course, should be stopped at its source:

Come friends and neighbors, let us rally!

It makes far better sense to rely on the fence,

Than the ambulance down in the valley."

"He's wrong in his head," the majority said.

"He would end all our earnest endeavors.

He's the kind of a jerk who would halt our good work,

But we will support it for ever.

Aren't we picking up all just as fast as they fall,

and giving them care quite liberally?

Why, a superfluous fence is of no consequence

If the ambulance works in the valley."

Now this story seems queer as I've given it here,

But things oft occur which are stranger.

More humane we assert to repair the hurt,

Than the plan of removing the danger.

The best possible course would be to safeguard the source,

And to attend to things rationally.

Yes, build up the fence and let us dispense

With this ambulance down in the valley.

-anonymous

A Perspective by John Denver

I love that little story. I wish I had written it (to the best of my knowledge it was written anonymously by someone involved in health care in England some twenty or thirty years ago). For me, the poem illustrates our approach to life in this second half of the 20th century, not only as individuals, but as societal and/or political entities. It points out that increased technological capability and scientific understanding does not necessarily (in all circumstances) improve on common sense. Just because we can do it, doesn't mean it has to be done. Bigger is not necessarily better, etc. It also brings up, for me at least, the seeming inability of our rational, scientific and technological minds to understand the lessons that nature teaches us with each passing day and every changing season; that in the polarity between darkness and light, there is the balance; that in the cycles of life and death, there is harmony; that in the incredible diversity of life there is equilibrium; that even as there is a way, there is not one way. There are, in fact, many roads to Mecca.

Nature has taught us over and over again that as different as things are, they are not and never have been, and never can be separate. While philosophers throughout the ages have speculated on the wholeness that religion espouses as absolute (constantly contradicting themselves in the process, I might add-the supreme being-intelligence-consciousness-has many names, ) our greatest scientific minds are only beginning to fathom the connections and relationships that permeate both the physical and the metaphysical universe.

Correspondingly, we simple folks lose ourselves in the deluge of the noise created by the above discussion, taking advantage of every excuse we can to separate ourselves one from the other (whether we are American or Russian, capitalist or communist, Christian or Jew or Moslem, black or white, young or old, man or woman, conservationist or developer, rich or poor, ad nauseum), in which separation we create the rationale to negate anothers experience, emotions, thought processes and ultimately their lives.

"Anyone who tells me that my emotions or desires don't exist is in effect telling me that I don't exist," says Abraham Maslow. To say that what any one of us thinks or feels is wrong and not worth thinking and feeling implies perhaps that one's life may not be worth living or at least that one is a threat to my way of thinking and feeling and living. So say the politicians and the preachers of separatism. We forget that we are all first human beings. How else could we go on killing each other? How else can we go on living in a way which denies any other human being, man, woman, or child, their life? How else can we go on feeding our fear, ignorance and insecurity while starving our spirit and denying our dreams and our visions?

We cannot live a lie! We can no longer exist in the contradiction between what we say in our words and deeds as an expression of our fear and separation, and what we hear in the cry of our hearts expressing connectedness and wholeness and the recognition that we are One.

George Leonard has observed that our existence has always tempted the human race with extremes. (I like to substitute the word "choices.") Today, we are a world culture standing on the razor's edge, between catastrophe and transformation. How's that for a choice? Catastrophe - not just a loss of life, but the potential for the end of all life on this planet - transformation - peace throughout the world, and the end of hunger, the end of world terrorism, security and prosperity for everyone.

"Of course," you might say, "but it is not that easy. There are so many problems. It's so complex, and besides, what can I do?" In my mind there are not so many problems. There are, however, many symptoms which are expressions of one major problem, the life that I mentioned earlier. And the solution is not really so complex or difficult. It's in the choices that you and I make every moment of our lives. The way we live, how we treat our neighbors, how we spend our money, whether or not we truly take responsibility for ourselves and our society and our country and our world. It is possible to recognize that the products of fear and separation, in all their forms and with all the problems and difficulties, they present, seen from a different perspective, are the perfect set of circumstances, the perfect opportunity, the perfect steps within which we can begin to express in real terms connectedness and wholeness, and if you will, oneness. Let's experiment, let's take a risk. It would seem a much safer bet than the risk we're taking now.

End of Part One

Windstar Journal, Winter 1986, Reprint by permission only.

Web Posting May/2000

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