And yet we all hold each other up

Beautiful words from FranIAm:

With so much going on, with so many things that cry out for our attention, we all bend down under the strain. And yet we all hold each other up.

Let us not forget the dead. Let us not forget the living. Let us not forget the need for peace.

So much of war, hate, division, prejudice and destruction is our own internal need as humans to project evil out onto other people. This creates the first step towards dehumanization and the development of "the other."

That is the soil that grows hate, division, strife. We must replant those fields with peace.

Until we can stop objectifying those around us as "the enemy", until we can see that the enemy holds some real estate within each and every one of us, violence, hatred, war, division will not end.

Sadly, since this has not changed since the dawn of time, I wonder how it can change now. However, I must remember what the words at the top of the page tell me... I am not free to abandon this or any other cause of goodness. I must seek peace, I must long for peace, I must work for peace, I must be peace.

I am concluding where she began:

Do not be daunted
by the enormity of the world's grief.
Do justly, now.
Love mercy, now.
Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated
to complete the work,
but neither are you
free to abandon it. ~ The Talmud

--the BB