Many people in the Judeo-Christian world know the beginning of the third chapter of the book of the Hebrew wisdom texts or Christian Bible known as Ecclesiastes: To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

Timing was very much on my mind at this time last year. I'd gotten my monthly column in by the deadline on Monday, September 10. The next morning -- somewhere between the initial reactions of shock and despair, and contact with the school district where I was working with children on the messages of the mass media -- I remembered the column. I had to find a copy to remind myself what I'd written 24 hours earlier.

The title of the piece was "Come Together." Would that very timely title, written before September 11, confuse or upset readers? Should I write a short note of explanation, or try to quickly write something more time-sensitive? What would I write? Would anyone be reading the paper that week, anyway? Did it matter? I read the column and made a quick decision, to stick with the piece as written.

The particular message - about the growing critical mass of change agents and the resulting hope for the future -- seemed appropriate, especially as all else seemed to be crumbling around us. The column was sensitively framed by the subhead, "The flowering of Cultural Creatives bodes well for the future," and the particular pull quote, "We all need to look at -- and through -- the boundaries of our environment and think about its future."

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Our culture handles bereavement poorly. We typically grant three paid days to get over the loss of loved ones, but only if they're close blood relatives, and then it's back to work. By Friday, September 14, 2001, most of us were expected to get back to business -- at least during work hours -- and to confine grieving to our personal time. Psychologically, we know it takes a full year to move through the stages of grief after a major loss, and that this timeline is often achieved only with the help and support of caring and knowledgeable others. Have we as a nation reached the time to heal, the time to build up? If not, why not?

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.

Are we in a time to embrace or a time to refrain from embracing? Should be embrace people or concepts? I was heartened to hear that the folks at www.worldpeace.org.au were planning to mark this anniversary with a global hug-in, marking the incredible coming together of that day instead of using the occasion to further divide and separate us. Is it time to gather stones together? I was heartened to hear that "the people" rejected the first plan for the rebuilding the World Trade Towers as not sacred enough. I was pleased to know "the people" had a voice in the matter, or any matter, for that matter.

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

Last year, my September column began, "My country and I went through our turbulent years at the same time. Although I've occasionally thought about leaving her and finding a more compatible home, this shared experience forged a bond that's too hard to break." The past year has been a real test of this statement. My particular brand of patriotism -- of love for this land, of desire for our country to live up to the potential imagined by our founding fathers and mothers -- has been questioned time and again. In a climate that sometimes smeared the vital messages of dissent with the brush of treason, knowing when to keep silence and when and how to speak has been an ongoing challenge

There were times when I thought I'd written that column just for myself, to get me through those times. To remind myself of the findings made by the authors of The Cultural Creatives -- that 26 percent of Americans have a different worldview than the one presented by the dominant culture. I wrote: "These are 50 million people who have been thinking outside the box and bringing necessary change to their families, organizations, communities, culture, and world. It's irrelevant whether they got there through one or more of the great social movements of the 20th century (peace, civil rights, women's rights, the environment); consciousness (meditation, martial arts, psychedelics, bodywork, spiritual exploration, etc.); some personal crisis, or all of the above. What is relevant is that the seeds of change have sprouted all over the country. The scent of their flowering is in the air that we now breathe."

Unfortunately, later that week, and for a long time after, the smell of smoke, real or imagined, and the scent of fear hid whatever flowering may have been in the air that Monday.

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

A year later, the world changed for many. I still believe love is the answer, that peace is the way. With all that is being written about the inevitable war against Iraq, the American people, if our hearts are in it, can change the "inevitable." It's encouraging that 36 other Rhode Islanders recently visited the offices of our US senators to speak against the war against Iraq. This national effort has received the support of almost a thousand Rhode Islanders and almost 200,000 citizens across the country. You can read some of their comments at www.moveon.org/iraq comments.html. You can see what 32 groups around the world are doing as alternative and positive voices for change at www.voice4change.org/. A time to speak. A time to love. A time of peace.

Like most messages, the book of Ecclesiastes has been edited for mainstream consumption. The book has 12 chapters in all, and even the best-known third chapter has many more verses than the ones that many of us know. The eleventh verse reads:

He hath made everything beautiful in his time; also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Hiding the world in our hearts -- what a brilliant plan. Who would think to look for answers there? Hopefully, we will.

Pam Steager can be reached at pjsteager@earthlink.net.

Issue Date: September 13 - 19, 2002