The Nobility of Our Lives

March 5, 2020, Portland, Oregon
(Inspired by Thomas Berry-”The Great Work”)
 
We did not choose the moment of our birth
We did not choose our parents
We did not choose our brothers and sisters
We did not choose our place, race, culture
Nor did we choose the historic moment
We find ourselves in
 
The nobility of our lives
Depends on
The manner in which we
Come to understand and
Fulfill our assigned
Role
In this moment
As we open our eyes
And find ourselves
Standing in this
New millennium
 
We are thrown into an existence
With a challenge
A role
Beyond our personal choice
 
We enter
With an Earth inherited,
From our parents
And theirs
And theirs
And three billion years
Of life on Earth
 
Our own special role
Which we will hand our children
Is managing the arduous transition
From the
Terminal Cenozoic Age, 
To the emerging 
Ecozoic Age*
 
The period when humans
Become participating members in
The comprehensive Earth community
 
A transition from 
Human devastation to
Human cooperation
 
From human rights
To the rights of Nature
 
From property rights for unlimited human exploitation
To Stewardship rights
Temporarily granted
For rebuilding nature
And removed 
When violated
 
We must believe that those powers that
Assign this role to us must
In that same act bestow upon us
The ability to fulfill this role
 
This is “The Great Work”
Of our new millennium