“If you know now what you didn’t back then, what difference would it make?”

“A lot,” you say.

“What didn’t you know then that you know now?”

“A lot,” you say as if it is too much to mention. Consider the matter this way. Faced with an uncomfortable situation of insisting on the rules of the game to the owner of the bat and ball who deems them arbitrary and subject to his interpretation, we are mindful of the implied precariousness of our circumstances. That is not an insignificant concession to the trajectory of our lives if we fail to challenge the truths of power with the power of truth.

The tyranny of power unmolested by principles finds our indignation not only cowed by hogwash, but we are not prepared to answer with an alternative backed by our integrity.

What we knew back then was that it mattered who owned the gold for that person made the rules by which we played. And we have continued in that vein where the person who pays the piper calls the tune. We are the pipers who can be commanded to play discordant notes.

So, what is it we know now that is a game-changer? I hope it is a recognition that the status quo’s power is fortified or challenged by your truth, which does not complain about tyranny so much as redress it. For it can be observed that the boy who complained about the rules when he was “at a disadvantage” can become a man who practices the same from the poverty he has internalized. Powerlessness is a learned behavior more so than it is an imposition.

Moreover, when we buy into narratives of our helplessness or powerlessness, whatever the strength of the opposition, not only is it not true, we surrender. We surrender. Our defeat was never a foregone conclusion before our surrender. Never be persuaded to defeat by the carnage you see, hear, or the certainty suggested to you by things and circumstances. Respect status quos but never be in awe of them. Indeed, challenge the premise of your nakedness. It is ill-founded, and a poison pill that infects your attitude. Whatever we think we know now compared to way back then is not worth a bag of imported beans even if we get it for free. Knowledge is a luxury when hopelessness mauls or threatens to beat our dreams. Never buy into that suicide.

We see by the way we think. Salvation, among other things, is first reconnecting you and me to our Father’s love and its profundity and boundlessness. A raging hell can’t stop that unless you join in undermining that profundity. Be calm. Tell the one who pays the piper that you only play notes of harmony. Tell the one with bat and ball the rules before the game begins. And be prepared to replace his by the resources of your integrity.

Pointing finger of blame even as it is of some value has not brought down a kingdom yet. Feelings of inadequacy to a situation, on the other hand, have. Poison pills kill without agonizing cries getting more than tears of consolidation.

Sigh. Whether it be the death of us is a conclusion to be disturbed. Turn it upside down. A resurrection in our attitude opens our thoughts to the hell we endure, if not needlessly, perhaps for the right moment to kick the ass we have been kissing. And when is that?

Never mind that answer. Bask in the profundity of God’s love. You will be affirmed. Pow! Pow! Pow! Oops! I meant Peace Salute. Old habits and ideas still tug at me.

Where there is hope, there is life. Be boundless in hope and collateralize that. Be awesome, my friend.

Peter Peterkin, Readers Bureau, Fellow

Edited by Jesus Chan

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