Thoughts on Agency

 I'm slowly resuscitating my very comatose blog to share some thoughts I pieced together in response to a writing prompt for a writing group to which I belong.

In one of those magical confluence of events that stop me in my tracks whenever I'm lucky enough to experience them, I stumbled on a quotation from Ryan Holiday and Pericles  while searching through my journals for my notes on a completely different subject. In Now Is the Time to Have a Civic Backbone (January 20, 2021), Holiday writes:

I urge you to consider the statesman Pericles’ warning: “One person’s disengagement is untenable unless bolstered by someone else’s commitment.” If you decide to ignore your human obligation, to ignore what’s happening in the world because it doesn’t seem to affect you directly, it might make your life a little more peaceful, but the result is an incremental increase in the suffering of others—whether that is the additional burden placed on others to carry your part of the load or an elongation of the injustice they are trying to ameliorate.

You will see the connection between Holiday's words and my take on the prompt,  "If I Were In Charge of the World."  Thank you in advance for reading.

having / taking / being in Charge

I have charge of the world already.

 

Not the earth, 

that miraculous, resilient creation 

that sustains life through integral symbiosis;

Nor the globe, 

that artificial construct that,

daring to represent the unfathomable,

veils the earth in human perception;

 

But the world,

the amalgam of disparate communities

striving at once to come together 

and remain separate

in a new alchemy of transformation.

 

Not, of course, the weather manifestations of a changing climate,

but a personal commitment to 

redefine convenience,

reassess habits from a different century;

 

Nor the plague of deliberate disinformation,

but a personal pledge 

to uncover in diverse sources 

the dots that connect to truth,

to confront falsehood and spin 

even at close quarters,

prepared to sacrifice the requisite pound of flesh,

to crack open my own mindset 

so questions and reflection can enter.

 

Not hardened tribal affiliations,

but listening no matter how difficult,

with questions to explore meaning, 

and 
soft language couched in maybes and what ifs,

a compassionate search for understanding;

 

Nor cavernous inequity tolerated 

as the way of the world,

but the eviction of the brittle and worn isms 

that still live in mental constructs,

so as to craft radical paradigms 

of fairness and justice.

 

I do have charge of the world already,

my own small corner of it, 

family, neighbors, community,

whom my own decisions

awaken or anesthetize,

bless or curse, in your face or incognito.

 

As I take charge of that world 

of which I already have charge,

As every person takes charge of the world 

of which they already have charge,

No one individual would ever be 

in charge of the world.