Many rivers to cross

While sitting here, listening to Joe Cocker singing his fantastic version of "Many rivers to cross" I cannot help but wonder what is happening to this world.

So much violence, war, hatred and destruction is going on. In their hunger for power governments all over the world are taking decisions that only lead to more violence, more hatred and thus more war and destruction. People are starving while others have more money than they will ever be able to use for themselves. We are killing each other, killing this planet and it seems as if we all think this is perfectly normal and perfectly okay. We have become numb, living our own life as well as possible, and trying to ignore what is happening to the rest of the world.

We, all of us, have been poisoned. Nobody knows when and how exactly and the poison is non tracable and very slowly working. But it is in our veins and it is killing us. And meanwhile it is making us insensitive to all the badness that is going on. Oh yeah, another murder, another town blown to bits, another country dying of a killing disease. Yeah, it's terrible, what's for dinner?

There is an antidote. It is very easily obtainable, in fact we all already have it in us and all we need to do is activate it and it will start breaking down the poison. Its name is hope. Hope for a future, hope for humanity to finally come to its senses, hope for the planet to be saved before its destruction has reached the point of no return. Hope has the power to make things work, and to make people work together towards solutions and a future.

Unfortunately, many of us have already lost hope. You can see it in their eyes, notice it in the way they continue living without a meaning. The poison has numbed them, and they are asleep. Asleep... but not dead yet. And they can be woken.

All it takes, is for someone to give them a real good shake. Someone who has hope, and is able to light a spark of hope in another person. Just like the poison is spreading like a disease, so can hope do the same thing. Many of us may have lost hope, but that does not mean humanity as a whole has no hope left.

Look around you. See the people that keep on fighting, keep on inspiring others, helping others, teaching and guiding and showing the way. They are everywhere. From the friend that lends an ear or a shoulder to the spiritual leaders of this world. From the teenagers that somehow kept their faith in truth and honor to the people that left their home and their country to go and help other people under often impossible circumstances. Charity organizations, rescue workers, social workers with a heart. Fundraisers, musicians and other artists bringing the message through their work.

This world is full of hope! We just need to see it. And once we do, we have a responsibility to spread it. Fight for it, make people aware, light that spark that can be lit in each and every one of us, hidden under all the numbness. It can be done. And I trust that it will be done. But it is a lot of work. And it will take a lot of time, and effort. Or, as the song goes: Many rivers to cross.