An Unknown New an essay

An Unknown New

By Amy Maureen Murphy

I have become increasingly aware

that two major events of the past few years

have allowed us an unprecedented opportunity

to openly demarcate and define our selves

in previously unimaginable ways:

the Countrywide elections and

the Worldwide pandemic.

Suddenly, dramatically and with great fanfare,

we became aware of

who stood with us

and who was on the other side.

The invisible made visible, loud and clear,

with one of two questions:

Who did you vote for? and

Are you vaccinated?

The answers often caused shock and 

anxious reverberations, around the world,

within communities, and amidst

family and friends.

It was a tumultuous reveal, an invitation to proclaim:

Here I am!

and

This is what I believe and stand for!

It caused rifts small and great;

Created chasms shallow, deep, and wide.

Yet, to the credit of both upheavals,

these two events gave shape, form, and impetus

to soft, concealed whispers;

it gave voice to the inner murmurings and musings

that we had thus far been afraid to state aloud.

Unity was formed on opposing sides

of a burning fence;

each side taking turns

fueling and dousing shared flames.

You felt it, didn’t you?

The Passion

The Incitement

The Heat from:

burning, ancient rhetoric; long-held and coveted hatred;

the painful dissolution of the Old Guard and outdated paradigms,

and the rising birth

of An Unknown New

People forced to learn

when it was safe to follow the herd,

and when it was best to isolate and

stand alone.

Heroes and Villians

willing to go to jail,

or die for their beliefs,

en masse.

One was now free

To Master their own Destiny

(Their fate wrested, astonishingly, within

their own hands.)

Empowerment be a newfound god

to experience, worship and extol.

I don’t see winners.

I don’t see losers.

I see individuals who found

their edge, their boundary; 

the place where they begin and others end;

what they found to be tolerable and what was beyond their ken.

I applaud you 

for finding and staking claim

to yourself

and your virtue.

God Bless You

each and every one,

or not.

The Choice is always Yours.