EVOLUTION–DEVOLUTION–REVOLUTION

Rinse and repeat

A response to the revolution which ignited after the George Floyd murder

Photo by Marisa Salisbury

There’s much talk about “what is my purpose in life.” We’ve all heard and used the term “the circle of life.” We all have unique purposes, yes. Based on our innate abilities, characteristics and personalities. Some we are born with, some formed throughout life. But dare I offer that we DO all have ONE common purpose in life.  That purpose is to EVOLVE. 

According to etymology online, EVOLVE comes from the Latin root EVOLVERE. It can mean to unroll or roll out.  This makes me think of unfurl…though I am no Latin expert.  As with books though, it could mean to develop.  

EVOLVE showed up in the English language in the 1640s as a way to express unfolding or opening out.  Surly when a flag is unfurled or unfolded it becomes airborne and majestic. When a FLAG is unfurled, THAT is when we all FEEL it’s honor, majesty and power of the country that it represents.  And so it is with us…the members of the human race. For each and every one of us, it is our purpose and mission on this planet to unfurl and EVOLVE in a way that honors the humanity that WE REPRESENT. To show how majestic our humans are and how powerful we actually are.  This truly is at the root of evolution. 

DEVOLVE and devolution then would be the opposite. If any individual devolves then humanity doesn’t show so well. If a faction of society devolves en masse then a real problem can present itself. If neighboring or separately classified group of members of the human race devolve in their own special way, it sets a string of dysfunction across to OTHER factions of the planet. It sends our whole planet out of whack.  It happens in families frequently and quickly. One spouse devolves, affecting all members of the nuclear family (and sometimes beyond.) Destroying the nucleus of the family and WORSE –the children in that family who then can not evolve as is their SOLE PURPOSE on Earth.  

REVOLVE and revolution, I offer, is the only way to push back to the healthy path of EVOLUTION. Set the planet RIGHT and back on it’s course by starting with ONE’S SELF or beginning with one’s separate class of members of the human race.  A REVOLUTION is the only way to return to our purpose of evolution and evolving. 

And THIS is one description of “THE CIRCLE OF LIFE.”  We have all set out to evolve, failed and gotten derailed (by myriad substances and people) but in our core we love and ARE loved and we get back up again in personal revolution in our lives.  Round and round we go. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Don’t beat up your community over it. That would only continue the devolution. Instead, stare it in the face and start a revolution!

LOVE.  

And you can’t spell EVOLVE without L O V E. 

If you are being swept up in this current REVOLUTION are you getting back on course with LOVE?  If you don’t know what to do or what to say, then STOP.  Breathe in LOVE. Think on LOVE and THEN form your speech and your words. THEN act on the action you now see more clearly, in love. 

 Are you about to fight or rally against a revolution? Well, STOP. Breathe in love and breathe out what you will likely find is FEAR.  You may see the rising revolution in a different light.  You may see it in the light of love and you may consider that their impending revolution is being done in love in order to get back to their evolution. You may find that it is some OTHER class of members of the human race that have devolved causing a ripple effect or poison to spill over across the planet. The ones devolving may not even be aware of their own need for a revolution of their own. 

A revolution that is based in love will gather others quickly, and in numbers far greater than the stars in the sky, to the revolution. 

A Psalm of Life

by, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882_

What the heart of the the young man said to the psalmist

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
     Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
     And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
     And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
     Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
     Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
     Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
     And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
     Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
     In the bivouac of Life,
Be not the dumb, driven cattle!
     Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
     Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,-act in the living Present!
     heart within, and God o'er head!

Lives of great men all remind us
     We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
     Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
     Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
     Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
     With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
     Learn to labor and to waid.