Midnight.  Can't sleep.  Wish I could do something for the people in Japan.  All I can do is pray for those who've lost their homes, their loved ones, their hope.  Feeling unworthy yet blessed and grateful.  Thinking about the bus, too, that turned over in New York and 15 people died, others severely injured, today.

Proud and Prejudged

I spend, well, enough time reading political comments and commentaries all the way from the left to center and extreme right, and various levels in between, and I am really impressed, at best, and appalled, at worst, with the ones who are brave enough to actually admit their position on some topics.  I find most interesting the seeming inability of some to leave their post just long enough to try to understand in a favorable manner the opposite pole.  What does it hurt to do that I ask myself?  And using myself as an example, on various controversial topics, I try to imagine just dipping my toe into the possibility of another view, with extreme caution, mind you, fearing I may be swayed to live with a shifted paradigm.  Sacre' bleu!  But the anger generated by attacks on the opposers is what I'm focused on for this writing.  Isn't that how riots are incited?  It begins with one, who is angered by another's words, who shares the words with others who are angered, and so on.  It doesn't cause me to stop and think about your view on a positive note if I don't agree with you.  What is the anger about?  Are some of us addicted to anger?  I realize anger has a good side that motivates change for the better.  But the addiction to it, as with any other addiction, is self destructive.  And it would appear that like other addictions, misery loves company.  There are some who have addictive tendencies anyway and for some of those anger is the drug of choice.  Unfortunately, I see it in places it should not be, as in these political forums and blogs and I see a kinship to other types of addictions in places they shouldn't be.  Alcoholism in the cockpit of a commercial airplane or a pedophile priest, for two small, albeit important, examples.  But what it comes back to is accountability.  Why are some flawed in that area?  The slander of others for their fundamental beliefs comes easy these days because people aren't held accountable enough.  I heard years ago, when I was a child actually, that our words float up into outerspace and are still out there somewhere.  Well, as a more concrete thinker at the time, I pictured the words actually doing that.  Obviously, it was intended to create a visual so we should choose our words carefully and respectfully because there are words out there that have our name, or picture ID, attached to them.  So, to sum it all up, I just wish there was a pill or something to take to help us sort it all out or, better yet, the right words to say.  Wouldn't it be great if we could travel to the future to see what our words have done or what our words might do if we don't stop and think first.  Harsh words never changed anyone.  It's okay to have a different point of view, but why hate the other person for not believing or thinking the way you do.  You're wasting your energy on that addiction.  That kind of energy controls you.  Love, compassion, regard, respect are all within our control.  Why not use them instead?  I used the title "Proud and Prejudged" for this because maybe false pride is the seed and to prejudge by experience is the fertilizer and we're all guilty of it at some point in our lives. 

Malachi 3:5

 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.