BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following poem was submitted by Barrie resident Alastair MacLeod.
THOUGHTS IN CONFLICT
As I gazed upon agents of destruction
And explored where warriors assemble
My thoughts of them and those before besieged me.
Immersed in the past; mired in the present; anxious of the future;
What I encountered became poignant.
Mesmerized by relics of war,
These paradigms to human’s folly
In the midst of the beauty of Divine creation,
I pondered; emotional and bereft.
What possesses us to fight over what is right?
If mankind is aware of the Divine Good Word
Why are we loathe to accepting it?
Why do we justify so maliciously altering it?
Besieged by many images, I continued my reflections.
Is war natural? Is mankind conflict-driven?
Does our faith (wherever it lay) give us false security?
Have we resolved to accept the inevitable?
More questions than answers.
As we cherish our beliefs, how do we peaceably defend them as righteous?
How do we uphold them in a world seemingly predisposed to hostility;
No matter what our faith?
More questions than answers.
But yet, we all seek answers; we insist on solutions.
As we search, do we overlook the obvious?
The answers are not concealed, nor are they obscure.
They are merely veiled — Cloaked in a simple disguise.
The disguise is our vanity…the answer?…’Do unto others’…
