Pendulum
Remember the song Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds?
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
In today's reading from Ecclesiastes, we have familiar words which I remember as lyrics to the song by the Byrds.
The song was written by Pete Seeger, but the lyrics found their source in today's text, which I find interesting, because the words speak to acceptance of the duality of life, something the rest of the text fails to appreciate.
Seeger took the words and used them to speak out against the many negatives in the world at the time, and ended on a positive note with the words, "I swear it's not too late."
It was almost a plea for us to keep the faith, keep trying to make the world better.
I doubt that was what the author of Ecclesiastes was doing, since he spoke of the futility of life's work.
But I like to believe there is hope. We can do better if we can accept that we are not responsible for all the evil in the world, as some would like us to think.
Yes, bad stuff happens, but that is what the words tell us. There is a time for everything under heaven.
The good news is we don't have to repeat the sins of the past. We can choose and we can change.
We can make this the time when the pendulum swings the other way.
The irony, of course, is that some of us see the pendulum too far in the wrong direction, while others see it coming to the right place.
Maybe that's why we have the seasons, so everyone gets a time when it is right for them.
More to come...