Fall

Last week I shared a post on Facebook that amused me. It was a simple meme that asked if the reader was ready for the fall, and it posed the question about what was meant by “fall”. Were they referring to autumn or to the complete collapse of society? That’s where I am these days -wondering whether we are witnessing the death throes of civilization and what, if anything I can do about it.

Apart from the host of political content that has me constantly shaking my head and worrying about the rise of fascism, and the announcement of the Second Coming, which we all knew was bogus, (well, not all of us, just those of us who have read our Bibles), last week we were also witnesses to a shocking display of boorishness at a golf game, of all things! It used to be that golf was such a gentlemanly game with the audience maintaining a respectful hush as the golfers made their putts, and offered polite, soft handclaps if they made a good shot. Not anymore. Apparently, the kinds of people who attend golf games are the kinds of people who yell vulgar slogans and throw drink bottles into the crowd as if they were at a drug and booze infested rock concert. If the end of the genteel nature of golf is not a harbinger of the end of the world, I don’t know what is.   

Speaking of the fall of civilization, I’ve written before about the abrupt return of the Roman legions from Britannia to their homeland in 410 AD. They were recalled to help repel the Visigoths who had attacked Rome and whose success in sacking the city signaled the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. Historians usually date the “Fall of the Roman Empire” at 476 AD when the Germanic leader forced the Roman Emperor to step down, so the Empire lasted nearly five hundred years from 27 BC until 476 AD and the end took at least sixty-six years to come about. That’s about two generations Where are we in our current age? The beginning of the end?

I was born in the early 1950’s (no need to be too exact!) and as I grew up, I looked forward to the future with hope and expectation. Everyone expected the things that troubled the world to improve – hunger, homelessness, oppression, war – we would soon be beyond all of that, we thought, thanks to advances in science, medicine, education, and technology, but we are not. If the problems of the world could be solved by wealth, the ten richest people in the world could pitch in and make them disappear tomorrow! But it takes more than just money and kind thoughts to solve the problems of the world. We must be on the same page to want that to happen. We have to really want to set aside our lust for power and domination and our petty nationalism and try to see the world as one large community, dependent on each other for our quality of life. Until we can do that, we will be wasting our breath, like Lear raging on the heath.

My grandson asked me today if I thought the world was getting better or worse. He is eight. He’s too young to have his enthusiasm crushed by a temporarily depressed grandmother. I said that ever since the world began we have moved toward becoming a better place to live, but there would always be room for improvement.  I think that is the truth.

Meanwhile, empires come and go and seasons ebb and flow.

Fall, of the autumnal variety, is settling in with its fluffy seed heads, and yellowing leaves, and its harvest glories of corn and pumpkins, apples and grapes. Fall always fills me with nostalgia and this year is no exception. But after the fall, the earth lies in silent contemplation as it prepares itself for the spring. And life goes on and all shall be well.