What would the moon say today?
By Rodney Richards Copyright 2023 All rights reserved
The Moon Reflects
Moonlight slanting
through the bamboo grove;
a cuckoo crying.
by Matsuo Basho
The moon glows the same:--
It is the drifting cloud forms
Make it seem to change.
by Matsuo Basho
What inspires writers, poets, and lovers about the moon? Its prominence when full? Its disappearance like we witnessed on August 18, 2017? Its solitude in a black-starred space? Its ever-watchful pose as we speed through each warm day into colder nights? Its call to lovers outside their shade-darkened windows?
The moon has been our silent observer, watching the antics of humanity from afar since our first appearance. It is only 60 million years younger than Earth itself, which is 4.5 billion years old. The moon has drifted away from the Earth. At one time, it may have been as close as only 14,000 miles.
Who’s to say an ancient civilization did not exist on the moon and those billions of years ago? It’s sobering to think that at one time, intelligent life watched us from the moon as we have gazed upward through millennia. It’s a nonsensical thought, but….
If it had intelligent life at one time, what would they say if they saw us today?
Perhaps, “Don’t do as we did. We had a peace-loving civilization. We had plants and water and life and mountains, fertile valleys, crystal streams, forests and teeming oceans. We had creatures great and small. We loved, made families, and thrived.
“Then we turned. Turned to hate, and greed, and cruelty. We made terrible instruments of destruction. And we used them. We used them all.
“We decimated our small planet, our home, our people, and children. Every trace of our existence was ripped from the Book of Creation. We ceased to breathe.
“I am what’s left. My Sea of Tranquility ironically named. You look up at me and see the outline of my crying face, my sad eyes, my mouth open wide, a warning: “Do not do as I have done! Care for one another, consider one another’s needs and wants as your own. Save yourself. Serve your fellow beings. Educate your children and teach them courtesy and respect. Be a balm to the suffering. Be generous and kind. Love, love, love!”
This is what I imagine our dead moon saying to us as I look up into its face each night. I imagine its warning shouts in deafening silence because I don’t want to see the same thing happening to Earth.
But it is happening. Human cruelty and hate wax stronger. Civility and unity scattered. We destroy our habitat, the planet, as shown so decisively in the movie An Inconvenient Truth. “Greed is Good” as Gordon Gekko proclaimed shamelessly in the movie Wall Street thirty years ago. Wars and battles continue, whether with missiles and guns or using words as swords. The world’s three super-states, the U.S., China and Russia, play dangerous games with economic power, military might, and the lives of their under-represented, unable to unify their masses. Civil unrest among nations is a fiery scourge. Terrorism abounds.
Despite the greatness of our technologies, no person, no company, no nation is safe from being hacked and shamelessly attacked. When we gaze upward at that bright moon-face at night, our eyes remind us of what will come if humanity destroys itself—a dull dead heap of dust with no life to cherish.
Or we can gaze up and say, “Moon, thank you for your example. I will not let you down. I am going to save our planet and not let nasty pieces of work ruin it. Like you, I am going to open my mouth and cry out a warning and stand up for what is right.”
We can act with justice. At its core, justice is itself a reward for what’s done right, and punishment for evil. The foundation of every society rest on these two pillars.
Only through love and justice will we save this life-giving planet for humanity and other creatures.
O SON OF SPIRIT! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.
—Baha’u’llah, Hidden Words, translated from the Arabic #2
