The Cosmic Scavenger Hunt

   My favorite quote of Martin Luther King is, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice".

    These beautiful and poetic words  fill me with hope, optimism, and the feeling that we human beings, most of us anyway, really want to do the right thing.  It's just that it takes us time, years, centuries, millennia, to figure out what the right thing is.   There are so many obstacles to overcome, so much haze and uncertainty, not to mention generations of  longstanding social and religious norms, inbred, rock-solid beliefs often fueled by self-interest or, more often, the self interest of our political, religious and/or social peer-group leaders whom we humans, sheep-like, follow, thinking not or wishing not or daring not to stray.  
    Which is why I believe that the long arc of the moral universe is a actually more like an evolving  scavenger hunt.  A few people with an evolved morality and a keen conscience recognize an injustice, whether inflicted upon themselves or others, embedded in the norm of their society.  These are the ones who find the cause, start the movement and bring the light, and over time the norm shifts and the law changes, and even those lagging behind the ethical curve are dragged along, kicking and screaming. 
     I believe the arc of the  moral universe will continue  bending  slowly through time, past one discovered and discarded injustice at a time.  And what more valuable gold could we find at the end than the words,  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".