The Snowflake Chronicles

I Am Dying to Write

I Am Dying to Write

“What am I dying to write about?” This is an interesting question. People are dying all over the world, not to write but either because they cannot grow enough food to feed themselves or because someone is systematically eliminating them, eliminating them because of their ethnic or religious group. Take what is happening in Darfur (www.savedarfur.org) where over 400,000 people have died. How many people have ever heard of this small section of Earth? How many people know where Darfur is located?

Most people are more worried about the price of gas then about people dying in an unknown country half way across the planet. Yet both situations are symptoms of one underlying crises, a single disease affecting the entire world. Although the symptoms of the disease are material, the disease itself is spiritual. Humanity is a single species, but many view the differences of color, of religion, and of nation as more important than the underlying unity of the species.

The outward symptoms of a disease are not its cause and one cannot cure a disease by treating its symptoms. Treating the symptoms of a disease momentarily alleviates a disease but it does not cure. Healing occurs by removing the underlying cause, the hormonal imbalance or the germs that triggered the disease. This brings us to the question: What can I, as an individual can do? The website www.savedarfur.org gives several suggestions from joining protest occurring this weekend to saying prayers.

The one thing that ever individual can do is say one or more of the prayers posted on http://www.savedarfur.org/action/resources/prayers#10. These are interreligious prayers, prayers from every religious and spiritual heritage in the world. Anyone can go to the website, choose a prayer and say that prayer for the situation in Darfur. Though some may scoff at the idea of saying only prayers for this situation, prayers treat the underlying cause of the outward symptoms.

The prayer I have chosen to say is this one by ‘Abdu’l-Baha: "O Lord! Draw up the people from the abyss of the ocean of hatred and enmity, and deliver them from the impenetrable darkness. Unite their hearts, and brighten their eyes with the light of peace and reconciliation. Deliver them from the depths of war and bloodshed, and free them from the darkness of error. Remove the veil from their eyes, and enlighten their hearts with the light of guidance."

April 28, 2006
(1 Jamal 163 B.E.)