Meanwhile, there are children starving on mountaintops
and children being beheaded in a park. I put the kettle on for coffee, survey
the happy mess of yesterday’s play. I put toast in the toaster and the birds
whistle outside the window. How would I feel if it were my daughter, my son? It
is. They are distant, but they are part of my own body.
I feel responsible. Not for the crimes, but for my
brothers and sisters, and all the children distorted by suffering. I do not
feel able, not in the least. What is
my response?
Coffee’s ready and the sun stretches out lazily through
our little valley, the same sun that burns angry over the brazen evil in
another land. This evil, this is not new. Braver and better people face it
every day, challenge it every day, in thousands of ways all over the world. But
sometimes a heart can get whiplash, and mine is here aching for Mosul and Mount
Sinjar.
I feel helpless. I have a few extra dollars, a few extra
prayers. We try not to think too much on these things, lest our lives be soiled
by their awful truths. But I cannot look away. I must not forget, when my
children are screaming in laughter, that others are not. I don’t have answers, and
only a small voice, but I will denounce this vomit of hell. I have a heart, and
today I will let it be stained with the sorrows before me.
My children are safe. My toast is cold. My heart is
broken. Perhaps, together somehow, our love can make a way even into this hate
and horror?
~lg
No comments:
Post a Comment