Violence

Violence.

It's a concept I actually have a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around. Why are we violent to one another? Why do we feel that others deserve a pain that we wouldn't wish on someone we loved? Why does whether or not we know, like, or love them change "what they deserve"? Who are we to say?

This afternoon, I heard about the Boston Marathon bombings, and my heart sank. I watched the videos on the link below, and felt a lot of things: fear, sorrow, hurt... and I can't help but wonder what would bring someone to cause such pain in another. My heart goes out to Boston and the hearts, people, and families that have been wounded there.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-boston-marathon-explosion-20130415,0,641755.story

It seems to me that, in America, we often feel immune. We see the problems of outcry and violence swirling in the world around us, and we feel like it's safe to shut the window... pull down the blinds... because we feel immune. I feel immune. Until it hits us at home, as it does, every once and a while.

If we took a look out the window, I imagine we'd see many things- primarily, people much like ourselves. People that are different... but the same. Humans. People with pain and joy and hardship and life... different bodies, different customs, different weaknesses, different strengths, but the same soul.

As I said in an earlier post, when I used to think about the third world, I used to jump quickly to the violence it was associated with. I used to be afraid, because I was taught that people out there are 'different' then Americans. Well, that's true, they are different. Physical violence may be much more accepted and common, on behalf of religion and politics and death often comes in greater numbers. But if we look at theses people, I think we'd likely see something we know very well. Anger. Frustration. Pain. The families of these 30 people killed in Somalia Monday aren't grieving any less than our the families of our two dead in Boston. Prayers for them, too.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/04/2013414101235148177.html

The truth is, we are all connected.

This truth has become increasingly apparent: thorough our global economy,  the effects of our use (and abuse) of our environment on the global weather, etc. It has been taught in philosophy and religion for thousands of years. The children of the 1990's learned it from a lion named Mufasa, with his circle of life. I learned it first from the amazing peice of s basics from Christianity, but then learned it better from physics. Take a moment and read this quote I found recently from one of America's most popular physicists:

"Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically... We are in the universe and the universe is in us." ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

When I reflect on the fact that we are each made of atoms and molecules, recycled through the ages in the bodies of hundreds of others and that those same atoms and molecules poured forward from the depths of the universe with the raw, primordial makings of life, destined (whether by fate or accident) to bring each of us into existence... I can't help but stop and take a deep breath. I can't help but take a moment and look around at all the wonderful things and all the wonderful people, feeling closer to all of it. Recognizing that at the base of it, we are part of the same energy. We are part of the same soul. Maybe if we all realized that, then love, over violence, would be a more common thing.

Have a blessed day, everybody. You better- you share atoms with Gandhi, Kind David, and the Buddha. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhtgINeaJWg @ 3:00]

Jake