Tuesday, June 20, 2017

To Be Human

Herself speaks.

I had the pleasure of seeing Wonder Woman for a second time. It was just as enjoyable, and just as meaningful, as it was the first time. And it was easier this time to see why Wonder Woman is so moving for women of a certain age. We are One.

Once upon a time, I was much like the young Diana as she leaves Themyscira: well-educated in languages (here, Greek, Latin, French and English), as well as other vital subjects -- not hand-to-hand-combat, certainly, but rather, science and math, classic literature, music, arts, history: all the important subjects to forge a future. I believed in the power of knowledge. And I was young, and so very naive. I believed that the world was bright, and that people were inherently Good, and that with the exercise of some brain power and the Truth, there was no obstacle I could not overcome.

It took a long time -- for I am a slow learner, and have been somewhat sheltered from the world through self-isolation -- to come to understand that everything is not black or white, and that terrible things happen, and that terrible people cause these terrible things. There are so many things I cannot change, and infinite things I cannot control. There is greed. Selfishness and prejudice. Ignorance. Callousness. Rage and cruelty. Sadness beyond measure. We cannot heal the world.

Diana realizes -- as all women do, and as I have -- that the World will always break her heart. This disillusionment requires finding a new source of strength to keep her inner fires burning. And her only choice -- the choice of every woman, knowing what we each know -- is simply: love anyway.

If we look through, between, and beyond all that is terrible, we can see the beauty that lies therein: the face of a sleeping baby; ice cream; snow flakes. Music and dancing (or 'swaying'). Knowledge that there is good in the people who are willing to try, and fail, and try again. That sometimes they succeed. And that it is all worth the struggle. 

I used to want to save the world, to end war and bring peace to mankind. But then I glimpsed the darkness that lives within their light. I learnt that inside every one of them there will always be both. The choice each must make for themselves - something no hero will ever defeat. And now I know... that only love can truly save the world. So now I stay, I fight, and I give - for the world I know can be. This is my mission now, for ever.

Sia, To Be Human: https://youtu.be/T84LqClui9A

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