A recent article by Judith Levine, which appeared online in The Guardian, was published under the following heading: "Fears about nuclear war are reaching a fever pitch. Another grim sign of the times." Early into that article, Levine makes the following observation:
The prospect of a third world war is both so unimaginable and so real that we seem to have leapt from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s first stage of grief, denial, directly to its last one: acceptance.
So, I guess I'm not the only one who's worried! It's just like Bob Dylan was singing, way back in 1963, in "Talkin’ World War III Blues" (I'm giving you the last verse):
Time has passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams
Everybody sees themselves
Walkin’ around with no one else
Half of the people can be part right all of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
I said that
Even if you are not a Dylan-obsessive, I bet you've heard that song. At least, you will have heard it if you are in my age group. Click this link if you need to refresh your recollection by listening to Dylan actually sing that song - or click it if you are way too young ever to have heard that song, or to have grown up thinking all the time about World War III, and whether it's coming today, or maybe just tomorrow.
Levine's reference to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, by the way, references Kübler-Ross's book, On Death And Dying, in which Kübler-Ross argues that there are "Five Stages Of Grief." These five stages are, in order: (1) Denial, (2) Anger, (3) Bargaining, (4) Depression, and (5) Acceptance." I assume that anyone reading this blog posting is already at Stage #2, and I can report that some of my family members and friends have recently been speculating that I am already in the fourth stage. That could be right, but I am here to proclaim that I am never going to move on to Stage #5 - and I'm asking the same from you!
"Acceptance" means we have given up on the idea that our individual and collective efforts can change the world - to make it better, or to prevent it from becoming worse. I am ok with "Thinking About The Unthinkable," but I am never going to be willing to "Accept The Unacceptable."
I am hoping you are also on that very same page!
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