I am again reminded of The Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.” Many are the ways to understand this passage, but one in particular always comforts me in times of trouble:

Consider snuggling up still closer to the Earth, physically and spiritually; inside her storied embrace, outside, wherever we find her creatures growing, running, and flying…

We must do what we can in the public square, but beware not to obsess over it, or worse, fight for the power to control it. That fight is eternal, and participants often die on their own sword, even if it is just a pen, or a ring. Be careful on the March, return home or to sanctuary before danger overwhelms, seek new insight or the powers needed from the love and safety of home…of family and friends, of kitchen and garden, in true school or church, from the inner and outer guides, you know who they are.

Sometimes our actions in prayer or inner activity are effective only because they emerge from that feeling of grounded, joyous love called home. It is debatable who does the world more good, the one at the center of the storm of controversy, fighting for the credit, or the one peacefully holding the energy of the desirable future.

Examples like Gandhi and King are instructive. They are modern proof that we can engage the public square in original, non-violent ways, and still be destroyed.

There is clearly more to learn on the way to political success. At what cost to our personal lives, our families, this success in politics? How do we strike the balance between enjoying life at home and serving our people, our nation, and our world? By virtue of our system of government, Americans especially are all called to civic duty. And we have recently seen how its exercise can become absolutely necessary in order to make it possible to enjoy life at home at all. It’s a cycle, so let’s make sure it’s virtuous.

Which brings me to another ancient saying: “No precept without example.”

The value of a teaching is expressed when embodied, as it otherwise cannot be proven…in the fire at the altar of experience.

Rarely have I seen a worthy example of someone who can contest the heart of the public square, win for the good remaining humble, and live to tell the tale.

But I have to hand it to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. His recent performance at the inaugural debate of the Austin Union was stunning. (He takes the stage at the 1hr, 41 minute and 30 second mark.) Debra’s team at American Values helped put together the event. The Austin Union is a debate society at the new University of Austin, Texas, which has declared itself “dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth.”

It is modeled after the Oxford Union, and as Debra and I watched the night unfold, I actually felt the arrow hit its mark. Both the best of the Old English and the Ancient Greek philosophers came to the balcony of the Heavenly Agora, cheering from above the proceedings. Those there in person broke an otherwise respectful hush at 2:33:00 exactly, when Bobby answered a question with this eternal epigram: “Trust the experts? That’s not a thing. Trusting the experts is not a feature of either science or democracy. It’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism.”

See what I mean?

And for all that, I don’t want to stray too far from home, where the heart and the power really is.

It needs to be said, and in some ways this is all that needs to be said: those who would create nightmare futures on Earth will not be here for long.

The answer from Earth and Humanity is simple: No.

I once encountered the idea that Napoleon was most afraid of the German philosophers who disputed his inevitability. For example, Goethe is said to have called him “as intelligent as a man can be without wisdom, and as great as a man can be without virtue.” Schopenhauer went further: “Napoleon was not really worse than many, not to say most, men. He was possessed of the very ordinary egoism that seeks its welfare at the expense of others…Every feeble lad who by little acts of villainy gains a small advantage for himself by putting others to some disadvantage, although it may be equally small, is just as bad as Napoleon.”

Those who can see, feel, and articulate persuasively the problems with a moral or political course of action can and do stop armies. Why do you think Biden and Bibi, Putin and Jinping all obsess over public perception, manufacturing consent? Mind over matter, there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. The pen is mightier than the sword. Why do these words stand the test of time? What do they ask of us today?

I keep thinking to myself, “Why are we worrying? We could just say no and that should be that.” Don’t you remember how infuriating it was when we were children, and someone with whom we were arguing just said, “No it isn’t,” and that was that?

May the March winds blow our troubles away.

But why then are there legitimate doubts here still? Why has Heaven not yet decisively come to our call? Even the tide of history still seems uncertain. Why do wars still rage, and tyrants still seek to arrogate all power? Why the towering edifice of the secret corporate-state deceivers with their hypnotic program of lies, seduction unto death sold as freedom? Why do the people, our people, our children, and the innocent still not see and understand, why do we still suffer?

What more can we do? What experience do we need to have? What powers remain to be exercised which will not destroy us by their use?

Still, I am certain of this: neither Earth nor the people actually wants the nightmare world “They” would have us believe is inevitable. How long the charade of the committed destroyer can continue is perhaps up to God. But there is no question we are the “indispensable supports.”