May 30, 2023

 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle . . .

I am writing for some friends a bit of commentary on an ancient and anonymously written book of history and lore. I have reached the twentieth chapter.

This blog posting is developing one day after the United States celebrated its Memorial Day, or as I knew it as a child, Decoration Day – when since shortly after the Civil War ended, gravesites of war dead were intended to be decorated with flowers, which I admit, I prefer to our current fad of flags. Personally, if you want to tell me thank you, if you want to say ‘you are appreciated,’ if you are sharing gratitude, give flowers. Save the flag for the Fourth of July. But I digress.

 It is 4:00am. I can’t sleep. The phrase about kings and battle pops into my mind. Not so happily, I pop out of bed to see if I can make clear what my mind just questioned—Do we humans so love to fight that we lay deliberate plans for it?

 Here’s the line from chapter 20: In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle . . .

This phrase insinuates planned conflict, doesn’t it? Intent. The Leader means to start a fight. In the springtime! Springtime—the time of trees flowering, flowers blossoming, blossoms bursting with pollen, pollen caught and carried by birds, bees, bats, butterflies, beetles, by water, and by the wind. Spring, a time when winter yields, when warmth rules, when in the spring of the year, with the promise of beauty, of abundance, of fruitfulness, of babies . . . the ritual is enacted, kings go out to battle.

I’m wondering, is it just too easy for us, that is, for people, to seek conflict, to plan for it, to justify it, to calculate how to create it, then to draw others into it (remember, the king had to have an army)?

In the ancient story I am studying, under persuasive leadership, the king’s army ravaged and besieged the land of others. Why? I wonder. Then, the story gives me an answer. The king brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount. This story reveals our human inclination to conquer, to subdue, to overwhelm, to belittle, to subject, to seek revenge . . . we can go on, yes? We have agency. We can plan such things.

He brought out the people who were in (the city) and set them to labor with saws, and iron picks, and axes.

Ah! Not a fair fight of strong opinions and verbal competition we talk about here. This isn’t whether to have Mac n’ Cheese or Tofu lasagna. This isn’t, “Your mother drives me crazy,” attack. This is the story of a plan to start a fight that promises harm. This is the story of what is possible in every one of us if we incline ourselves to battle.

 I say, let the spring of the year, be the time we put flowers in our minds, on our tabletops, in our hands, and at our neighbors’ doors.