I am ready to talk, for sure, but not ready to speak with temperance.
The Vegas shooting is--at least for me--another in a pile-up of terrible events. It's been weeks upon weeks of natural disasters and human hate and I am at the end of what I can deal with and remain hopeful. Yes, I was going to talk about the shooting in Vegas, because it's terrible and it's physically painful for me to see the images and watch the videos. I was going to talk about Vegas, but Vegas is only a symptom of a pandemic of hate and division.
If I talk about Vegas, I will have to talk about taking a knee and the absolutely infuriating and discriminating responses it's summoned in people. I will have to talk about Trump's golfing time while Puerto Rico runs out of food, clean water, and shelter. I will have to talk about the months, even years, it will take to build Mexico City back up, or Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, and the Virgin Islands. I will have to talk about Catalonia and the breakdown of democracy. I will have to talk about the German elections and the hate vote. I will have to talk about how black lives matter and everyone deserves to breath. I will have to talk about so much darkness, and I can't.
Not yet.
Not today.
So I will show you the heroes of these disasters instead. I'll pay tribute to the people who lived and saved others. Those who are not selfish, hateful, or vengeful. Those who remember every life is precious and theirs no more than that of another.
And if you don't think this has a place on my blog, then please, don't visit anymore. Our religion is one of ethics, of arête and being the best version of yourself you can be. The best version of all of us is the version who loves, who cherishes, who keeps safe.
Thank you, every day heroes. May the Gods bless you for all time.
I appreciate this latest post and I commiserate with the power these events "seem" to have in shaking one's faith in humanity and the hope one tries to cherish for our future. I have, of late, been afflicted with my own doubts on this score and I've tried to look to the Gods in my heart to see how They work goodness and justice in the world. Sometimes this is difficult to see when its eclipsed by cruelty. Then, as you show in the photographs from these tragedies, people helping other people with no other motive than to do what's best, and so make the world better, in however small a way. Maybe the Gods' works, if They are immanent and throughout the world, are best reflected in these deeds. When confronted to these challenges, I find the greatest to be the creeping certainty that my heart wants to turn to stone as if I might be better protected from it, but at the same time I want to see the world as the Gods might see it--as you say--with love. Several weeks ago when I was feeling especially oppressed by the strife and division in the world, I wrote three admonitions while considering the Maxims.
ReplyDelete1) Honor the past; 2) Know the present (as it is); 3) Cherish (the promise of) a future.
Again, I salute you for this humane and compassionate post.