Evil and Good are siblings that walk together always. Once they were conjoined in harmony. They separated for various reasons explained in various beliefs and myths from various cultures and countries. Sometimes they walk side-by-side, sometimes hand-in-hand, sometimes they follow each other, sometimes they play hopscotch, but they are near…always. This is the dichotomy of life. Terror happens. Violence occurs. There’s injury, mayhem and death. And then, swiftly, there is an out pouring of assistance, kindness, compassion, and healing. No matter the disaster – manmade or nature generated. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.” *– Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers Neighborhood – now deceased.) Here’s a link to a brochure with his advice about talking to children about disaster.
Evil strikes. Good responds, stepping through fear, pain, and devastation to help, rescue, resuscitate, repair and lift. Evil knocks down and buries. Good lifts and lights.
It seems to me that we must expect evil. Expect pain. Get ready for disappointment. Evil sneaks up on us in guises we don’t expect. The devil nearly never comes dressed in devil’s clothing – most of us would recoil. Rather, it can come clothed in youth, intelligence, comfort and affluence, from neighbor or stranger often wearing a smile or looking innocent and nice.
Anticipate evil but live for joy. Notice the goodness that surrounds you every single day. Remember how connected and how dependent we are to each other.
Positive people must push kindness, love, joy, good, peace, health as consistently as negative people push evil and harm, doubt and fear, carnage and injury.
Evil is random and so must love be –random, frequent, and indiscriminate.
No more hurting people. Peace.
(Martin Richard, 8 year old victim of the Boston Marathon Bombings in 2013.)
(*Thank you to Lisa Johnson for posting this on Linked In. Lisa blogs at Anali’s First Amendment. Her blog is often related to food and food happenings around Boston but also about other things as well.)
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