POWER CONQUEST AND THE DEVALUATION OF LIFE

 As of late, my mind wanders toward philosophizing more often than ever.  Most commonly about consciously setting a high value on life.  For example—detectives will work round the clock to solve the murder of one person—a stranger, no less.  If a child goes missing, the arousal of communal need to join in the search is a given.  Firemen rescue kittens who’ve climbed out too far on a limb.  Humans have compassionate souls.  But what of our minds?  Therein comes the rub …

At times during recent weeks, my mind seems to swing between two poles, feeling rather flat or so overwhelmed that pent up tension must seep out from deep within.  I can tell tension is emergent, because while lying on my bed, cellphone in hand, penning a post, my feet, crossed at the ankle, just can not stay still.  Though one heel remains afixed on top of my comforter, all ten of my toes (and metatarsals) march in place or wind around each other, throughout the day.

As you may remember, a white sliding library ladder adorns one wall in our spacious family room, as shelves, stacked with books, climb up to the ceiling across two walls, each being 14 feet high.

As an avid reader of historical novels, I’ve come to value a diversity of characters, some embraced as dear friends, others as role models, and as such, I’ve spent, day after day, mindfully engrossed within a well-researched series concerning twelfth century, English history.

Recently, the fiery temperaments of the principle players—King Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Thomas Beckett—offer up a real page-turner as descriptions of their impassioned interactions leap through my mind as penned within book 2 (Time and Chance) of this gripping series by Sharon Kay Penman.

I’d relied on this series to pass the time, quietly (though my fully energized feet continue to challenge my need to fully relax) during the weeks following the discovery of tumor number three.  Penman’s novels are lengthy, and as soon as one ended, I’d felt hungry to occupy my mind with delving into the next in line.

Though over the years, I’ve devoured many novels concerning the English monarchy, I’d never fully absorbed the fact that civil wars—based upon the divine right of kings—had consistently ravaged English cities, towns, villages, castles, manors, farmland, churches, etc. suggesting untold numbers of dead young men sprawled all over battlefields, while plundered shops and homes of survivors were in flames followed by innocent families facing tragic bouts of famine as the young of the middle and lower class in England cried with hunger only to grow up and find their lives divested of peace and safety—repeatedly—this political pattern, recycling for hundreds of years, all in the name of expanding the power and enriching the wealth of a few.

Where hides the compassionate portion of our minds when greed, hardening the human heart, condones the wholesale murder of young lives for personal gain?

Did you ever read the novel, POLAND?  Many years ago, I found that eye-opener—concerning honor, betrayal, conquest, sliding boundaries, all based in the complex nature of political intrigue—as deeply disconcerting as I struggle with concern for Ukrainian families, today. 

Thank goodness for reading, which deepens my understanding of both sides of human nature

And for writing, which clarifies the complexities of my personal thoughts—to me.

Arithmetic, not so much until I consider the importance of processing through logical steps of reasoning, most especially when problem solving is essential to personal and political survival.

👩🏻Annie