Voice in the Wilderness - Oct 28 2023

 

Voice in the Wilderness

Oct 28 2023

I wrote a letter today.

Addressed to “whom it may concern”

and suitably indignant,

I made clear my opinion

on the state of the world,

offering up

all the answers it's been searching for.

A voice the wilderness

that needed to be heard.

A little earnest, sure,

but what's wrong with that?

This is serious business

and not a good time

for sarcasm

and weltschmerz.

I felt so much better

sending it.

My work done

problem solved

no thanks needed;

I'm a humble man

and world peace

is thanks enough.

For certain it will rise up

above the babel,

the cacophony

that assails our ears

and numbs our common sense.

Because who can resist

the wit and panache

I wrote it with,

the self-evident answers

I was happy to give?

So you can understand my bafflement

when it was refused.

The editor

who rejected it,

the powers that be

who would remain unschooled.

It's hard to be right

and fail.

Hard

trying to change the world

with good intentions

and timely words.

Hard

for a solitary voice

from some obscure place

to even be heard.

But why worry?

After all, I've done my bit

had my say,

what more do you expect?

I did write a rare (lately) letter to the editor today. Nice to ventilate. But nothing changes. Only actions and sustained activism count. While words are a poor substitute, only of use to the smugly self-satisfied.

After all, even if it does get into print, how many will read it when we're all in our small silos of information, and when it's increasingly harder to distinguish the fake from the real? Not when there is no shared town square or universal medium. Low trust. Or even worse, apathy and disengagement.

I quite like the obtuse persona of the writer here, who apparently doesn’t know that he's making fun of himself!