TODAY . . . today, a 24-hour time period—a man-defined period that tends to turn into weeks and months and years and decades and centuries leaving me feeling like a grain of sand on a very sandy beach . . . inconsequential.

However, before I give up on ever doing anything because of what I perceive as “it-won’t-do-any-good-anyway” philosophy and I become inert like a rock lying on a sandy beach . . . I want to consider:

Many philosophies and religious systems have believed that the “soul” resides in the heart, the seat of the lifeforce and that it is the part that must be helped to pass into eternity as the only way for anyone to survive that apparent physical “death” that seems to occur to everyone.

My Judeo-Christian background tends to support the idea that the “soul” must be protected, guarded, guided, instructed. The idea that the desires we possess can often possess us, that our desires can be the root cause of much of the suffering we incur, and that we can be controlled and driven by our desires to do and be things we would not think we are capable of should give us pause as we walk our path.

I remember an incident that happened somewhere in the northeastern part of the United States of America back some decades ago where a woman was attacked on the street and people in an apartment building watched without trying to help her escape from her attacker and I remember there was an outcry against the inaction of those observers and questions about how could anyone watch without trying to help?

Fast forward to our current world
where many have watched
• children and even babies being taken from their parents and many never being reunited,
we have watched
• human beings who were running from violence being caged and treated like animals,
we have shouted that we should
• not provide medical care and food to people from other countries with different color skin,
and we have watched scenes
• allies being killed as we withdrew our troops that had been fighting along side them against our common enemy

NEVER . . . never would I support the abuse of another human being—that is what I have always said and still say
SO
what am I using to justify not doing something about what I have seen
or even am I repeating the rather weak justifications of others?

The loudest argument I am hearing is the extremely divisive accusations that any “bad stuff” is the “other guys” (whichever political party you are not a part of is who is doing the bad stuff)
WELL . . .
it is ALL of us who are not doing anything to help change the situation who are participants in the bad stuff by not stopping it. My dad used to always say:
“it is not WHO is right, if it WHAT is right”
and that is still the way to look at this . . . am I doing WHAT is right?

Can we STOP pointing fingers
(example: memes with one political party or another labeled)
and START lifting the burdens
(example: support those providing care for the hurting and hungry)
STOP protecting dollars
and START protecting people
by living out the “golden rule”:
TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED!

WHAT am I teaching my children by the life I live,
by the actions or people I approve . . .
do I PREACH love, but DO NOTHING to stop hate?
do I SPEAK love, but REFUSE TO DO what love demands?
do I DEMAND mercy, but JUDGE OTHERS as unworthy of food?
WHAT am I teaching my children by the life I live . . .