Am I on the good side of bad?

Or the bad side of good?

Morning Light

Where do I stand in the continuum of good and evil? It is easy to tell myself I am good, stand for good, damn good, good enough, one of the good ones, man…I have always thought of myself as able to uphold ethical values. But I might have done something irreparable I am not even aware of. It could be I had some effect in some action or deed that caused strife, unawares to me. I think so, because this has happened to me so often where I imagine myself creating the conditions for someone or something to devastate me. Every day I create those conditions.

That is why I must assume the same for my own actions and behavior. The butterfly syndrome explains action/reaction but does not specify with what force that measure will be experienced on the other side of the world. Perhaps a welcome rainstorm, perhaps a devastating flood.

And speaking of devastating floods, that is what is happening in the news locally and nationally. Scores of dead children swept away. Who is to blame? This is what we want to do. We want to assign blame in order to get through this most awful event. HOW could scores of kids be drowned like they were? Who’s fault was it? When we start trying to imagine who did it we forget the image of those children and their terrible fates. This tragedy should have been occasion for the world to stop spinning. Like when Baby Jessica was trapped in the well in Texas in the 1980s. The world seemed to stop and wait breathlessly until that baby was rescued.

Now every day there is something that should stop time because of it’s dank resonance —every day there is a piece of news which would have been at least a reason for folks to pause. School shootings, indiscriminate knifings, dismembering, drive-by shootings, all manner of death, destruction, and mayhem—all of which confound one’s humanity.

What is the effect of these devastating never-ending news horror stories? Is there a cause/effect relationship to our burgeoning alienation, our move away from community and attachment? What is the antidote?

The loss of human life which exists in a state of war has no place in times of peace. The loss of our humanity in these times is confounding, as we are not facing enemies —except those fictionalized for the sake of the continued ransacking of our economy and government by evil agents of chaos.

Perhaps we can’t do much about those lost human beings, or even those yet to be lost, but we can still care. We must still find within ourselves the constant capacity to care deeply about each loss of human life— as well as to mourne the loss of our society to actively and successfully support our humanity.

I apologize for the late postings…I will post at least once/week, and try for twice! Thank you for your continued readership…I appreciate your thoughts and comments.