In this time of distractions, when you suffer within your heart but don't have the words to express your suffering, if we can keep our relationships to TV personalities to a minimum, this is that time of courageous acts, of stories that throb with emotion, even if these stories never get told.
This is the time when courage is not rewarded, but ridiculed. This is that cynical time when innocence is seen with suspicion, and a daylight robber is celebrated as honest. This is a time when shamelessness is confused with courage. This is why we have people who, in saner times would be recognised as scum, in prime leadership positions.
This, when people lose sight of what's real and what's just a fantasy, when people lose sight of themselves in pursuit of that fantasy because reality has a difficult shape, is the time of heroes. This is when we understand how common and normal a hero really is, and how tough it is to be common and normal and heroic.
This, when songs are losing their meaning, is the time to invoke the Arirang, the Bella Ciao, the Vandemataram.
This is the time, when the world gets dark, to light the light of hope in our own hearts. This is the time for grace and beauty within ourselves to step up. This is the time to be moved by birdsong, and wish for a garden, not a bank.
This is the time to look up to the sky and ask for the courage to live through and the strength to fight through. This is the time to understand and abolish the evil within ourselves that makes us unable to speak and unfit to be heard. This is the time to look straight at what we've become, and fix the mistakes that shadow made.
This is the time to rise.
