Dust

It filters down from above, in our hair, shoulders, hands. The air is loaded with it, grainy and rough, carried on the strands of sunlight, blocking it with the grime and grit. I shield my eyes to glance up at the shards being swept off the edge and hear the quiet tap tap tap of life chipping away.

People are hunched over now, covering their noses and mouths with cloth from their shirts, dust accumulating in the creases of their exposed necks. They begin to wander around seeking cover, under a tree perhaps or awning, and try in vain to dust themselves off and also their companions' backs where they can't reach. Familiar things look unfamiliar as it is blanketed by the erosion of life.

My 401K - down 48%, to the original investment of 1999. Jobs in the balance, young people filled with dread. Even if we compassionately fall short of the doomsdayer projections of total economic collapse, it's unsettling to watch things erode. We now know we will all suffer for the blind ambition and unchecked greed of a few. We are here again because our country has not yet learned the lesson it needs to learn.

The best kind of national infrastructure is faith based, that is to say honoring and valuing that which is unseen. We the People believe it is there to sustain us without feeling confined by it. The lives we know and cherish, the freedoms we have so arrogantly come to complacently expect, is transforming. What will it be like, I wonder, and how long will we have to wait until the dust settles?