Rise Up Babylon

On the evening of the funeral some of Mom’s friends from church brought us dinner. Sitting around the table like we did as kids felt briefly nostalgic but then agonizing. My mother’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at Annie’s empty chair. My eyes started to swell up as well.

The adrenaline that had moved us through the fog of the past week dropped with a heavy thud, and the festering truth began to boil.

Suddenly Susan, who was usually withdrawn during family meals, exploded. “Dad, this is all your fault! What do you think caused this record-breaking fire and mudslide?” She pointed out the window to the ravaged mountain. “You know Tricera’s creating global disaster and you just keep on polluting.” Her face was red, her eyes glowing with anger. She’d risen from her chair, pointing her finger right at my father’s face. “Annie’s death is on your hands!”

David jumped up, yelling even louder, “You’re a fucking environmentalist hypocrite, Susan!” His arms swung wide in a circle. “How do you think we get to live like this?”

Susan retorted something cutting about David’s politics and his new staff position for the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “Oooo, Daddy’s little lawyer doing Tricera’s dirty work!” Her eyes turned again to my father, “You are all going to hell.”

Susan rushed from the table. Moments later, the thud of her suitcase hit the marble of the foyer floor, followed by the long sound of screeching tires all the way down the front drive.

My father muttered an insult about Susan’s irrationality and David readily agreed, pounding his fist on the table.

I expected Mom would just stay silent but she surprised me, standing slowly then looking directly into my father’s eyes. She spoke with a firm but calm voice, “May God forgive you if you really don’t know what you’re doing.” Her stare shifted to David and she held his eyes like a magnet. Then, languidly, she turned from us all and walked upstairs.

Speechless and uncertain what to do next, I followed my mother. I found her sitting on her bed, holding her Bible. I sat next to her, and she addressed me without looking up. “When I can’t find answers, I search here.” She flipped the pages like a fan, closed her eyes and then opened the book. With her eyes still closed, she put her index finger down on the paper, but before she peered at the words her gaze rested upon me.

“Your father and David are beyond me now,” she lamented. “I’m too bereaved to try to reach them anymore.”

“Dad should be held accountable, Mom,” I asserted. “His decisions are devastating far more than just our family. The whole world is dying.”

Her long brown hair fell over her face as she nodded in painful agreement, and then her eyes moved to where her finger still held the point on the page. 

She read aloud. “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! The merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.’”

“What does it mean?” I inquired.

She responded with angst, “We’ve fallen -- to the allure of riches and power.”

“Mom, stand up and show them the truth!” I exclaimed. “Ride out with me to join the front lines!”

“My beautiful Maeley,” she cried. “I’m just so defeated.”

Witnessing my mother’s terrible grief in that pivotal moment was the final stripping of my innocence in our darkest night. But I beared down, pushing to find a new depth of my own strength. Then somehow, the little light inside me erupted into a spirited, rising blaze.

“Mom, the dawn will come.”

Babylon

Out beyond the horizon

Our room with a view is dying

What was good and green

Taken by the machine

And we feed it with each thing we’re buying

On our way down

I’m here calling to you

Ride out

And meet the dark head on

They haven’t counted on the dawn

Now there’s no time to cry

But tears fill my eyes

When will the light arrive

In Babylon

The mob has an anger that’s rising

Too many people just barely surviving

And they just can’t see

Our trajectory

With the living and ending colliding

On our way down

I’m here calling to you ride out

Ride out with me

And meet the dark head on

They haven’t counted on the dawn

And there’s no time to cry

But tears fill my eyes

When will the light arrive in Babylon

B..B..B..Babylon

B..B..B..Babylon

B..B..B..Babylon

Something worth saving takes fighting

Not with a sword but by changing the writing

On the wall

Then we’ll be

On trajectory

With the hope that keeps living inside me

On our way down

I’m here calling to you

Ride out!

Ride out with me!

And meet the dark head on

They haven’t counted on the dawn

Now there’s no place to hide

And tears spill from my eyes

As the light arrives in Babylon

B..B..B..Babylon

B..B..B..Babylon

B..B..B..Babylon

B..B..B..Babylon

Come on Babylon

Stand Up Babylon

Rise up Babylon

Ride out to Babylon

Stand up Babylon

Resist Babylon

Rise up Babylon

Come on, Come on, Come on

Or we’re gone! We’re gone!

END PART ONE