A Common Purpose:

All beings strive towards a common, hidden purpose

Thinking little of themselves, for they bear too heavily

The burden of the world for such a pastime to be afforded.

It is therefore not that we are born into an absurd conflict

Of self-centred wills in whose midst the only evil agenda

Is that which supplants the autonomy of one man

For the totality of an Other,

But rather: it is that we are borne into this very striving

Which is every man and woman’s birth-right and

Responsibility, that no man might forbid his fellow

To fall short of virtue by a failure to uphold the

Common good, and so it follows that the only

Evil plan is that which puts the Self before the Other,

The former favoured at the expense of the latter.

So it is too that to come of age and manhood

Is to begin to lead as well as to follow, serving

The needs of one’s fellows even when one grows

Forgetful of their plaints, for so often they forget

In their own altruism what they need, and one

Must supplement that holy ignorance of Self.

By what authority then will the villain make

A villain of the leader who would lead heroic

Life towards its one fateful, common end?

By his own criteria he will deny his adversary

Any blame in dealing in superiority, for every

Act of the villain is itself the expression of the

Preference of one Self to an Other,

And if he should dare still to contest God’s Will

By force, denying that one avenue of Faith that

Would exempt him from the Scornful Public Eye,

God will remind him that such contest, which strives

Not towards common unity but rather towards

Common futility, for it makes strivance towards a

Common conversation futile,

Will meet much greater futility still

And with lesser praise. For that expression

Of the will is not abuse of will alone but

Of force too. And when one’s forced to

Deal with it one must choose force

In dealing with it, and by that point

One acquires Force but without sacrificing

Reason. Hence one can retain one’s Faith

In action and the Grace of God will shine

In the defiling of the wayward foe.

Dm.A.A.