The Great Gathering by Rick Alimonti

 a/k/a “Maybe Someday”

 Much time has passed since the year of the Great Gathering.  The greatest minds of the age,  worldwide, attended .   Every discipline was represented: scientists, philosophy, mathematics, religion, government, history. etc.  No realm of thought was omitted; no open mind was unwelcomed.  

Never before had there been such a gathering of intellect and spirit.  Most had
thought the meeting a political impossibility.  It had been seven years from its
inception as an obscure proposal to the United Nations to this unprecedented
assemblage in Geneva. Nations at war with one another sent delegates with instruction to participate despite ongoing hostilities. The seemingly impossible task: to chart the future for all of humanity
 
They were to catalogue all worldly needs, resources, and capabilities, and their resulting “manifesto,” it was hoped, would sow the seeds of positive change for all.  There were general sessions, committee sessions, subcommittee sessions, and countless informal meetings and conferences.  The gathering had become world news as all nations awaited the day of publication of the great “manifesto.”

When finally released, it was considered a failure.  It turned out that the many minds and philosophies represented could agree on very little.  The gathering itself was denounced as “a squandering of priceless intellectual resources.”  The resulting manifesto, degraded as an insult.  

Yet, in time, it took hold.  Nations and individual saw the true wisdom of the great gathering.  Copies of the “Manifesto for Humanity,” were everywhere - some in expensive frames in great meeting places, others, a  simple note taped or tacked in the most austere of dwellings. 

Now, decades later, the fruits of the Great Gathering have forever altered the course of humanity beyond even the greatest  of expectations.  Those who derided the Gathering and its findings now stand convinced and converted.  The world is in a second Renaissance, and it seems only just to have  begun.  The “Manifesto for Humanity”stands universally adopted and enacted, guiding the thoughts of governed and government alike.  Its full text reads:

 “Be Kind.”

(Dedicated to Rebecca Moore and her students and colleagues at St. Mary's.  The true authors of our future.)