Golden Rule – Quest For Nuclear Disarmament

The Golden Rule, a Veterans for Peace project

By Stan Levin

One would be hard pressed
to uncover an adventure with beginnings more humble than that of a formerly unlovely wreckage
resting on a sandy sea bottom
embryo of destiny, unrealized at the discovery moment,
to morph into the planet-navigating boat of peace,
“Golden Rule”

Her ignoble hull, sand consumed wooden body
and broken wooden bones
littered the shallow bottom ,
Where she lay in pieces,
a debris field that had become for her
a resting place for mast and spar,
prow and rudder,
remotely recognizable to dreamers as a noble vessel ,
a diamond in the rough
in the imaginings of a few, already a work in progress
Now, just a salty grave for a less than seaworthy derelict.
One would surmise this to be the end,
but it was, if fact, a resurrection
patiently waiting rebirth,
re-purpose,
and fateful place in the scheme of things …

Down to the sea as unpromising wreckage,
to be reborn as a rolling, pitching, yawing
long-distance voyaging icon of peaceful determination …
to thwart advance of atomic weaponry
Under the auspices and loving stewardship
of an international brother and sisterhood
Veterans For Peace …..
Enter The Golden Rule !
Embarking on a three year global trek
to far off shores
in the pursuit of global nuclear disarmament …
in the cause of sanity …
Bon Voyage, Comrades in Peace!