hearken (HAHR-ken) verb intr., also harken or hark

1. To pay attention; listen.

2. To return to a previous subject (usually in the form of hearken back).

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So if we double it--hearken, hearken--will we learn anything? If we hearken back to a previous subject, a previous era, a previous experience, and pay attention--really listen--are there benefits?

They say that those who don't revisit history are doomed to repeat it. You'd think by now we'd be out of the rut. How many books have been written on the subject of our shared past? I took American history no less than four times during my years of schooling. Then there was world history. Twice. Thousands of children and young adults who went to school with me have done the same--as have those who went before and those who come behind. Yet here we are, passing through the same valley of death that has been passed through since the dawn of history. So hearkening (2) isn't enough. We must hearken (1).

By now there should be enough evidence that we need something larger and wiser and stronger than we are to settle the issues that need settling--such as who shall rule and how. Who is qualified to take care of mankinds' every need? Who can mold and shape men into beings that can unite and care instead of maim and kill? Who has a standard that works for the good of all, to the detriment of none?

Hearken back. Does the core of it lie at the hearth of home? We are so consumed with being everywhere but home--at work, at school, at daycare, with friends, at classes, volunteering. Let's volunteer to be families who have time to take care of each other in the most basic ways. To say good morning when the sun comes up. To offer a bit of food in good company--to fill body and heart, provide security and sanctuary. Then venture out to extend those things to the next person in the chain. And if it is extended far enough?

Then we have a far reaching support. That is all. The trouble is that you can't legislate a heart condition. If a heart is filled with hate, and backed by determination to feed and fan that hatred, then no support from any direction is going to change that. Only a desire to really live can begin to extinguish that burn.

So how do people come to believe that injustice will end? That wrongs will be righted? How do they lay aside the anger that comes from starving when others have too much. There is no justice for the man who wants to work and cannot. Or the one who does and still cannot provide. How does one lay that aside and live a better life in peace and patience?

It takes faith and dependence. Humans don't want to believe they need something larger than themselves. They are rather like teenagers in that. So anxious to prove themselves self-sufficient and self-contained that they make foolish choices and blind themselves to the idea that there is a need for guidance and direction. Yes, the human family is still in need of guidance and direction. It can be had. But today the desire will have to be there first.

Hearken. Go back to the beginning and really think about it. Therein lies the way out. Hearken.