The Centre Does Not Hold
The other day, I was watching the 2020 mini-series, The Stand, based on the same titled 1978 Stephen King novel. In it, an army general quotes William Buttler Yeats's "The Second Coming." When I heard this line: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.." I thought, that's it; that's what I've been thinking (albeit in a wildly different context, but it fits with my musings). Here's the rumination in a nutshell: communities with a good, healthy, noble, wholesome cause start out well enough. They're centred. They know their mission -- it's decent and worthy. People rally around it. It gains momentum -- there's a buzz, people hear about it and join. Good things happen within the community and because of the community's reach. It's like the Beatles. I know, I just took a hard right, but stick with me. For such a time and place as this (Germany, England and then the world in the early to mi