Our Spirit Will Live On

I had one of those life affirming moments with the Chimney Sweep last night.
One of those moments he proves his weight in gold.

I have often observed that the Chimney Sweep has a capacity to talk a lot of total drivel. But in amidst the constant deluge of witter, the odd nugget shines out. And last night, he excelled himself.

I have long struggled to find a single statement to sum up the core of my belief system, what it is that drives me, the fundamental ethic that I hold all other ethics to be dependant on.
A fundamental statement that sums up what I believe to be the most important belief for humanity to savour, humanity to live by, humanity to judge good and evil by.

At one point at this party, I dragged the Chimney Sweep back inside to the living room and asked him 'Out of interest, would you say I was ever a CRUEL person?'
He was relatively quick in his answer 'No, I wouldn't say you were. I think you can sometimes SEEM cruel, but I think your heart is basically in the right place. I think you always strive for what is right.'

I nodded 'Thanks. That's what I think. Only it's happened of late that it's been suggested somewhere that I'm cruel'.
He shook his head 'No Joe, I wouldn't say you were. I think you can perhaps be a bit flighty and I think you brush the girls off pretty quick when you get bored of them, but I don't think you ever set out to be cruel.'

Anyway then he set off 'I mean one thing I quite value in you is your quite positive outlook on life. I mean, I don't quite buy into this Anarchist state of yours, where people all co-operate to run a technological Utopia and there's no government, but I think there is something very positive about that kind of faith you have, it's not quite religious, but it's that certainty you have that our spirit will live on.'

I sat forward.

'That's it, xxx. That's what I believe. Brilliantly summed up.'

Because it's that.
That has to be it.
The most important faith belief there can be.

That looking around you, looking at human beings living their lives, laughing with eachother, talking with eachother, communicating with eachother, feeling moments of pleasure, feeling moments of reward in a struggle to stay alive, winning those moments of pleasure and enlightenment in a journey through life, seeing the energy expounded, believing that that, that is something that will live on.

Believing that after us, it will continue.
That that spirit that is in us, will never die. Our flesh may die, but the spirit, the spirit that humanity have, will live on.

That the spirit that Cro-Magnon showed as he danced with joy round the campfires that roasted the freshly killed Mastodon, will live on.
That the spirit which built the pyramids, will live on.
That the spirit which sent seafarers discovering, will live on.
That the spirit which caused Christ to accept the cross, will live on.
That the spirit which caused the Spartans to resist at Thermoplae, will live on.
That the spirit which caused Galileo to question, will live on.
That the spirit which causes us to share eachother's pleasure and pain, will live on.



The spirit that causes us to die for our principles.
And the spirit that causes us to just want to party till we die.

The spirit that causes us to want to soak in every experience, every feeling, every bit of knowledge, to seize what we can and gather we rosebuds while we may.

It is that belief that looking at everything we are, that you believe that that spirit which has conquered everything in its path, will continue to conquer, rising up ever further, that that spirit is the greatest force the universe has yet seen, it is the spirit that will conquer the universe.

Our spirit will live on.