This passage is the final paragraph of Dr. Martin Luther King’s essay “The World House” in which he discusses the evil of racism, the scourge of poverty and finding an alternative to war.

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on…." We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community.”[1]

In Bentari, the global horrors of World War II reach destructive talons far away until they clutch an innocent village and its tribe of forest people in death’s claw. This is a passage from Bentari, chapter 19 “How It Goes”:

“Like in the age-old proverb, men drew the line across the sand. Man had set the stage. Now plans were set, the preparations done. Man’s blight, his warring ways, arrived to scar history again. This war was like no other. Yet it was no different. The thing that makes all wars alike is that they are almost always filled with surprises: surprises that turn tides; surprises that twist fate; unforeseen events that obviate those well laid plans and make us wish that we had never made them; events that make us wish, indeed, that we had kept the peace.”

My aspirations in writing Bentari and in planning The Bentari Project were inspired by the good doctor’s dream. It will live if we choose community over chaos.

Let us choose now.

Image: Jo Brown’s segment of the Peace Ribbon—Mom and the marchers encircled the Pentagon, Aug. 4, 1985

Please send your thoughts about this blog entry to: tim@bentari.com. Please write “About Bentari” in the subject line. Thank you!

[1] See: http://www.theworldhouse.org/whessay.html - Home of The World House Project