I hear a voice in the distance…
What are we to do with madness? What are we to tell the children, the youth, the future when all around is burning? When the very fabric of our moral fibre is torn apart? As a child, my heart would beat like thunder at the very possibility of diversity. Colour meant one thing… vitality. It represented the sheer beauty in all things. The idea of hating a colour was as alien to me as the many galaxies spinning light years away. I am by no means a very religious man. I walk to the beat of my own drum. I feel what I feel, I love what I love and I strive to be better than I was yesterday. I have been surrounded by love, possibility, hope and strength for as long as I can remember. I have witnessed hate, violence, horror and felt loss. I see the darkness manifesting as I write these words. All the while, I hear a voice in the distance. Fleeting whispers beckoning me toward the light. I realise that this is my conscience. My moral compass. A myriad of colours that have always been there. It is the product of all of the beautiful people and events that have helped shape me and yet somehow existed from the inception of my very being. As I ponder what could possibly be said to the youth, our future, in these tumultuous times to make sense of the senseless, a voice whispers in the distance. The only true power we have is our voice, our conscience, a bright shining beacon guiding us safely back to shore through the storm when all seems lost. The unabashed, overwhelming urge to do good. Enveloped by a mesmerizing spectrum of light and colour. I once heard the phrase… each child born has the power to save the world or destroy it. I don’t agree. I believe each child born has the power to save the world and will when those who raise them… teach them, nurture them and encourage them to listen for that voice in the distance. Our very existence implores us to move forward, to adapt, to evolve. We do not move backward, we do not morally or idealistically degenerate and we DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT give up on progress. We fight for that voice in the distance to be heard until all hate, bigotry and noise fade to the abyss where such filth belongs. There is one phrase that has always stuck with me. “We live as though the world is as it should be, to show it what it can be.” With that I take my leave, as I hear a voice in the distance…
Carlo Zappavigna (Human Being)
