Essence of Life

Most people have become way too tolerant of murder; we punish it too lightly and even excuse it when it is in the service of utopian visions.

Hitler killed more than 20 million, Stalin 50 million, and Mao Tse-Tung as many as 100 million and more recently 2 million in Rwanda and 2 million in Sudan. These lists can go on and on. Unfortunately the heart-rending tragedy starts with just one life lost and then we become innumerably and exponentially numb.

In the name of religion, political justice, in the pursuit of a better world through one ideology or another, mass graves have been dug and then filled. Who among the murderers has been punished, aside from a few convicted at the Nuremberg trials? What communal level of desire or diligence can stop this?

Everyday the news tells of suicide bombers, street gang shootings, men who kill their pregnant wives, mothers who drown their children, teenagers who shoot their classmates. The average time served for murder in the United States is 7 years.

What follies of humanity must we embrace as the price to preserve everything beautiful in our human civilization?

The heart is selfish and arrogant. Still, many struggle against their egocentricity and learn humility: because of them, there is hope that beauty lost can be rediscovered in its many forms, and that what is revealed can be revered.

“Life you may evade, but death shall not” (TS Eliot)

Life should be cherished, it is a wonderful gift. If you have the chance, live, love and be blessed. Find something beautiful, admire it gently, respect it compassionately, and wish to preserve the world that surrounds it.