We are numb with the gravity and tortuous substance─ truth too real to view in high definition. Perpetual coverage, updates, stories and shamelessly gratuitous abuse of the innocent. What’s missing is a reasoned and intentional palliative for this troubling trend proliferating. Underneath it all, there’s a loss of hope. How can we begin to recover and find newness again?
Can we at least concede that in some ways WE are the problem? with the un-quenched desire to consume; we consume ─ violence, in sports, film, there’s a sort of violence in business and securing the “good life” It shows up in competition, the pursuit of beauty and power; when life is reduced to commodity, we are left with a loss of meaning and in need of restoration and cure.
We want justice, we demand Justice. We would PURCHASE equity if we could. The banality of filling our appetites once again, (recycling failure) we can take an alternative path: make time to breathe and think about what has happened, plunge into the reservoirs of our spirituality, and embrace what’s important in our lives ─ God, family, friends and nature and art. Perhaps retrace our own steps, see where we've been complicit in some cosmic way. The butterfly effect.
Most religions call for reflection and renewal, not only as a way to inhale (TAKE) in, but also as a way to exhale and breathe out (surrender). Realize we don’t live in a vacuum and we can thrive when we look outward and give of our resources to others. Christians and Jews are connected to the Hebrew notion of tikkun olam (to mend the world). On some level, all of us have the capacity to grieve and understand pain. If we are seeking “meaningful action” we should begin in our hearts and at home. Two things that move the heart: beauty and affliction. We’ve seen affliction, yet mercifully, beauty avails us to the largest possible life.
Peace
©2012 W.S. Warner
