Here lies a thought,

a feeling, an idea.

It’s bitter end unexpected by some

yet foretold by many.

It is remembered and mimicked often

but it’s shades are never the same -

distorted by mistellings and untruths.

It was always fragile;

it’s pulse always weak.

And those who hated the idea were all too quick and willing to misunderstand it.

But they couldn’t kill it themselves;

ideas, although fragile, harness power from the abstract.

And it was one of the most powerful ideas.

It had existed since the beginning of time.

Since the very first act of kindness,

the very first moment of consideration,

the very first empathetic thought.

It has been preyed upon by its detractors since that very moment too;

since the very first act of selfishness,

the very first moment that ignorance donned the cloak of the all-knowing,

the very first evil thought.

But persistence gave way to the idea;

over and over again vigilance and knowledge lent themselves to its lifeblood;

The predator failed until its hunger sought the help of greed and ego who veiled themselves cunningly in the robes of compassion and righteousness.

And so persistence and vigilance and knowledge were poisoned.

A heart cannot beat without oxygen;

muddied blood never made for healthy veins;

And the idea grew sicker and sicker until finally

the idea was nothing but a shell to take shelter in when the torrential downpour of lies started up again.

It’s substance blurry and partially forgotten,

Its tenets malnourished and half rotten,

So sickly and gangly was its corpse that even the ground it was created on seemed to regurtgitate its remains back up.

So we hold this service today, prematurely perhaps,

but in clear view of this new rotten truth.

The idea that was is no more.