Monday, December 29, 2025

Shape-Shifting Janus

 Oklahoma Magazine

The human animal has many attributes

some of which are integrated toward the 

goal of survival, the first imperative that

nature bestows upon her creatures.

There is the kind of drive and tenacity

that helped concentration camp inmates

to adapt to their misfortune with the

hope that rescue would eventually arrive.

There is the intent of curiosity and its

sister, exploration that drove restless

souls to the farthest ends of the Earth

to discover that there were no limitations

to aspiration. There were the minds so

heavily wedded to science their very

thoughts were capable of exploring the

universe and the impacts on human

health of the unseen creatures devised

by nature to ensure humankind could

never rest on the assurance of existence

in a hostile world. And then there are

those who among the populace consider

themselves the natural arbiters of all that

concerns civilization, assuming positions

of authority both autocratic and democratic

who may have been endowed with their

fair share of principles and intelligence

but choose in the interests of political

power to shelve unneeded albatrosses

in the greater interests of shifting gears

as and when required to be all things to

all people and in the process failing all.

 

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