Words of wisdom for troubled times

“How can these things happen?” I asked a weathered professional soldier, who had been all over the world seeing evidence of more atrocities than most. “How does evil get such a hold as to make them possible?”

“Many go along with the system out of fear,” he replied. “Close their eyes rather than risk their life or that of loved ones.”

“But the ones who instigate them?” I contended. “Are they never troubled by such a thing as conscience?”

He smiled reflectively and then he said: “I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no goodness inherent in the human race. Humanity is more like a fertile soil where anything can grow. Seeds of every kind abound, from the loveliest blossom to poisonous plants and weeds that choke everything in their path.

“Civilisation is the facility we have for turning virgin soil into a beautiful garden. It tells us what’s worth cultivating, what needs fertilising or pruning, and what should be uprooted and destroyed.

“However, once you adopt a regime that, for reasons of its own, advocates the wrong kind of growth, it goes out of control very quickly, resulting in wilderness and, ultimately, a waste land.

“It has always happened and will happen, again and again, anytime, anywhere, if we as gardeners don’t do our job of carefully tending what we’ve been given.”

■ Life Harvest was published in 2021 and is available in local bookshops.