Like leaves adrift in an autumn breeze, dust motes circled
in a shaft of sunlight. The yarn
of the gray shag rug was soft beneath bare legs. My sister and I were sitting on the floor in our parents’
bedroom, watching TV on the black and white set. As if life could not possibly
be any better, our mother gave us each a stick of Wrigley’s gum. Bliss. Sunshine, spearmint, and TV.
And then – it must have been during a commercial break – the
screen filled with a series of photographs: the FBI’s Most Wanted.
Some of the faces were female.
Wait. What? Women could be murderers? Women?
Women were mothers, babysitters, teachers, and nurses. They took care of people; they did not
hurt them. My childish sense of
the world as a safe place received its first fractures that day.
How old are most kids when they learn about the
Holocaust? Maybe seventh
grade? So, about twelve? That was the next jolt, being twelve
years old with hellish knowledge to process and store. Didn’t the guards at
those camps have mothers who taught them to do unto others as you would have
others do unto you? Didn’t they
have children? Had they never been
children themselves? Thankfully,
that brutality happened in the distant past – a decade prior – on far-away
shores. Everyone had learned the
lessons of that evil and it would never happen again.
I clung to that belief as long as I could. I believe, ultimately, in an orderly
universe, but I can find no place in my wishful credo for the Holocaust, so it
floats out there, evil inexplicable.
And last week, two young men dropped lethal backpacks at the feet of
children, and walked away.
So battered have we Americans been in recent years by armed
men and Nature tempestuous, that the fragility of routine has been laid
bare. I perceive the humdrum with
flickering antennae: shoppers
filling carts with Wheaties and milk, restaurant-goers sipping wine and perusing
menus, teenagers tapping cell phones while strolling a sidewalk, families
cheering loved ones at the finish line of a race. So normal. So
easily blasted apart.
Deep breath.
Deep breath. Quell the
prickle in my nose, the mourning in my soul. This is new to us in New England, but it is not new. And it is in contrast to the goodness
that unfolds minute-to-minute and hour-to-hour, so commonplace as to rarely
rate media coverage. Courtesies,
small kindnesses, sweeping acts. A
driver risks the annoyance of those behind him to wave in a merging car. Quilters meet to sew blankets for the
sick, injured and orphaned.
Schools run drives for mittens and scarves. Organizations – so many of them – raise money for human
rights, cures for disease, conservation, housing, and food. Strangers rip fabric from their shirts
to tie tourniquets for those wounded nearby. First responders, brave, brave souls, rush toward smoke, screams, and blood, to help.
The world does not feel safe right now, but remarkably,
kindness is the unremarkable norm.
4 comments:
Lea,
I too hope that kindness and the sense of community that arises out of tragedy can triumph over the senseless damage and pain brought on the innocent by Mother Nature and some twisted souls.
Love your words. They paint such a vivid picture (of your soul).
Rayma
My Sweet Kind Heart,
The world is filled with all kinds of people, some much more evolved than others. It is the responsibility of the evolved spirits to teach and help those not as fortunate. You my dear friend are one of the fortunate who understand that truth. It is in giving that we receive.
God Bless you,
Love,
Bobby
I agree with the commenter who said the world is full of souls, some more evolved than others. Unfortunately we have too many (our leaders included) who feel violence is the only solution to problems. I'm not sure we'll ever have a world where understanding, rather than revenge, is valued but we can hope.
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