>Remember, remember the fifth of November, The gunpowder, treason and plot, I know of no reason, Why the gunpowder treason, Should ever be forgot…
I’m not a big proponent of ceremonial traditions and routines and such, as some of you may know. Traditions are things you should believe in, things that have meaning and are guidelines on how to live a better life and be a better person, a better human being.
But thats all they are – guidelines – not the hard and fast rules that they are made out to be, the non-conformity to which will end in us being damned for eternity or some equal measure of rubbish.
No one knows what we are for sure, why we are here, where we came from and where we will go. Everything we take for granted and assume is based on things people have passed down through the generations, and if theres one things that everyone with a little common sense should know is that history and its lessons are often written by the winners. Nothing is hard fact!
Perhaps this is why I am referred to as a “Cynic”, people have a hard time letting go of the irrelevant little things that we flood our lives with and create this little bubble of security.
This tiny little planet we call home is not the biggest in our own corner, this system, and in the bigger picture, the universe around us – we are less perhaps than a grain of sand in the oceans. This kind of thing, often unconsciously is what scares the living hell out of us all.
But that doesn’t matter. We are what we are, for now this little grain of sand is ours. We should be happy to be here, be left alone to do what we please and be given resources, free-will and the intelligence to make more of it, to (depending on your personal bent) either reach the stars and find other worlds and life or to go out into the heavens and try and find religious/spiritual truth and – dare I say it – God.
Circling back now to the intended point here – This is where we are, we came from the fires of creation, be it god or the big bang, and we are a part of this universe and that is pretty much irrefutable I think. What we are is irrelevant. We are here, this is our world and we have been born and bled and died, committed atrocities and in the same breath undertaken seemingly miraculous acts of unity and love and compassion.
We dont know if there is a heaven or hell or any kind of after life at all.
What if there is nothing? Not all religions can be right can they? Isn’t that what people keep fighting about? What if they’re all wrong and this life is all that you get?
We all need to take a long look at our lives and the world around us and make choices, hard though they may seem. More often than not it is the fundamentalist, the crazies, the ‘believers’ and the greedy and powerful that make noise and are seen – the common folk prefer to be neither seen nor heard, understandably so since who wants to face down a rabid dog if its avoidable?
But there are cold hard realities. Today we have a new president in the White House in the USA. The first black man to ever be elected to – pretty inquestionably – the most powerful office on the planet today. Now picture this: tomorrow he is killed… What do you think that will do? Can you imagine what that will incite? It is a scenario that I have considered often during this election and seeing the world today, it scares the living hell out of me when I think of the most likely outcomes.
The people need to make a stand – the average person who is not a fanatic to a cause must make him/herself heard and be accounted for outside of the curtained voting booths. Change as Obama puts it is needed, but we cant sit back and wait for our leaders to bring it.
THAT is what history is for – not to be taken literally, but to be studied and learnt from so that we dont make the same mistakes over and over again as we are so prone to do.
This my dear readers, is why I refer to Guy Fawkes, be clear and know who and what you are and be prepared to stand up for it. I dont say blow things up – if it means harming innocent civilians who have undertaken no violence against you and held no enmity to you, then to harm them makes you no better then the hate-mongers we live in fear of today.
Take from this story the lesson that even on pain of death and being accused of treason, have no fear and live your life. Be true to yourself. If this life is all we have, then live it to be the best that you can be and if there is an afterlife – well I dont think that any worthy god would damn a soul that lived honestly, honourably and with heart. Do you?
Remember, remember the fifth of November,The gunpowder, treason and plot,I know of no reasonWhy the gunpowder treasonShould ever be forgot…
One Happy Monk 
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