The Sum of Our Experiences

The sum of our experiences:

That's who we are.

Do our experiences guide us

To reach for that distant star?

 

Do they allow us to see

Through a person's façade?

Do they help us uncover

Dangerous deceit and fraud?

 

Do they take us to places

Of deep and profound thought,

Outside our ego selves

Where we're something we're not?

 

Or do our experiences hold us

In a superficial realm

Or on a ship of mindlessness

With ignorance at the helm?

 

Do they allow us to open

Both our minds and our hearts--

To discard superstition

And grasp at what reason imparts?

Since we're made up of all

That we have seen and known,

How reassuring it is

To know we're not along.

 

That reassurance

Should make us mindfully strive

To work for the good of all people

So that our planet can thrive.

(9-23-14)