BY C.L. Harmon

I grew up in a world where a tip was earned not expected. I was raised in a world where one helped another just to see them lifted up, not for a ‘you owe me’. I remember a world where working was the natural way and not a time when it’s taught that natural is to expect what is not earned. I experienced a world where God was feared and terrorists were mocked as weak, a time before airports were civil liberties violations with a paycheck. I remember a world when respect was first taught and then earned through morality and courage. It was never given freely as its worth was valued too high for a handout. I witnessed a world where integrity was in a handshake and a word before courtrooms became playgrounds where adults settle disputes like children. I knew a world where men fought over differences and then learned to live together in spite of them; a world where owning a gun meant you knew when not to use it. I once knew a world where people loved more than they hated, a world where common sense came with every lesson be it at school or home.

I remember a world where a happy meal was a family at the dinner table and conversation was the most important ingredient on that table. I knew a world where punishment was important because it built character because we knew a sting lasts less than a prison sentence.

I once knew a world…

C.L. Harmon

The further we delve into the madness of panic, the more distant sanity travels from us. We have always resided in an uncertain world where chaos sweeps behind us in a frenzied rush. We have always lived with fear, but until recently, we have never let that fear become the beacon in which we gravitate. We are setting a precedent where fear rules us even into ruin. We are choosing to survive in chains rather than live free in the few steps separating us from the chaos.

There is no escaping the fact that we will become swept up in the forces of havoc from time to time. But as it has always been, the cost of life is the realization of death, the reward of life is the opportunity to experience it. When fear becomes our light, we are traveling down a dark path. If we do not create new and reasonable light to combat the surrounding darkness which attempts to consume us, we are lost regardless of what direction we choose.

Illuminating the darkness which engulfs us during the seasons where the havoc has caught up with us, is as simple as believing that even a small flame of reason drowns out the dimmest surroundings. It is also the acceptance that chaos has an appetite and will consume what it needs until is satisfied. It is further understanding that madness cares not for our choices to serve fear or to battle it. It simply obeys its nature. We must always remember that the choices made in fear today will be the circumstances that we live with tomorrow.