The Seed

The principles now planted in thy bosom will grow, and one day reach maturity, and in that maturity thou will find thy heaven or thy hell.

David Thomas
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Hello Margie
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I have a seed sitting on my kitchen window sill. It's dark brown and slightly smaller than a golf ball. I picked it up off a lush green yard in Staten Island, New York one afternoon. A botanist, perhaps a forester, might be able to tell what would grow from that seed. In fact, the yard where the seed was found had a number of tall, grand, stately trees.

I read somewhere that those seeds get planted by squirrels who bury them for the winter and then forget where they are. So if you see one of those poor critters frantically digging in the snow he's probably saying "Where the heck did I put that seed?"

The amazing thing is that everything that tree is going to be is embryonic information already contained in the seed. The seed knows just how tall the tree will be in maturity, how many branches it will have, how many leaves and other blossoms it will produce and how many seeds of it's own it will drop to the ground for the squirrels.

I have been bothered lately by the rampant immorality I see around me. I guess unethical behavior has always been in the world, but since I haven't always been in the world, it's the current crop of egregious behavior that concerns me, particularly when I see evidence of it among people I know.

Now I don't pretend tome be crystal pure, bleached white clean myself, but I have learned to monitor myself to catch it if I'm about to do or say something that smacks of dishonesty, disrespect, scorn or some other negative impulse, and if something like that sneaks through, I've learned to regret it. I've discovered that I've finally grown into some of the principles "planted in my bosom" as a child.

But, even so, my life has been good and my behavior toward others has been fair compared to what some people display, even some seniors who should know better. I once heard an executive with a very large insurance company say about a client that he didn't mind if the fellow was dishonest as long as he had a sense of humor about it. That remark made me grind my teeth. I'm in favor of humor, but I'm against dishonesty. For some people lying is a way of life. So is cheating, which is a polite word for theft.

I knew a broadcasting producer who thought nothing of stealing other people's ideas and believing that he had thought of them himself. Road rage, drugs, loud music, trashing other people's property, kidnapping children, political smear campaigns, corporate greed, terrorism, torture, mass murder. The list is endless.

I wonder what principles, if any, were placed in the hearts of those destroyers of peace, freedom and society that causes them to grow into the weeds and poison ivy of the world. What awful seed was buried in the dark ground of a youngster's mind that allows him to grow up to be a depraved, iniquitous waste, or even an otherwise nice guy who just bends the twig to suit his will with no regard for morality whatsoever.

Some religionists will say it is because of the hubris of Adam and Eve. That is an easy, quick fix non-answer and should be thrust out of the churches and synagogues.

Something should be done about it. I don';t know what to do. Maybe I should plant that seed somewhere and give the world another tall, sturdy, honest tree.

We are all leaves on the great tree that is life, all expressions of life. The seed of that tree is a good one and there is something about every leaf that is worthy of respect. I want to say to the villains of the world "Wake up and join the human race."

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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