Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!
—The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling
Showing another new Little Gem from the West End Gallery show, this one titled Across the Divide.
The title refers to the the river that separates the two opposing shores. There is a political commentary implied in the blue and red of the two shores representing the colors of the political divisions here in the US.
There’s a lot of talk about the need for unity, about how we need to come together as a nation, but it seems as though there is a wide and mighty river between us, one that may never be traversed.
Like the opening line from the Kipling poem– and never the twain shall meet.
I would like to think that there is common ground that we share as citizens of this nation but it’s had to see at the moment. That river looks pretty darn wide.
I was about to start on a spiel about the need for compromise but I am going to skip it. Most of you out there who read this are intelligent people who understand compromise and how important its place is in big country with a wide variety of people. You know that everybody doesn’t get exactly what they want all the time, that we all have to sacrifice at some point for the greater good.
Sometimes we give and sometimes we get, depending on our needs and situations.
And that is a simple, workable concept until you factor in ignorance, racial hatred, and greed.
Then things go awry and you get to this point where we are now, with a wide and deep river running between us.
I still have hope and I see it in this piece. There’s too many things here that unite us if we only allow to set aside our biases, judgements, and prejudices.
I know that’s asking a lot but is it, really?
Redtree Times 