It was real struggle for me to settle in and write my column this month. I want so badly to always leave you with some feeling of positive expectation for the future, but this month, finding the words was a challenge. Even as I write this, phrases have appeared on this page, only to be discarded a moment later for fear of causing you discomfort. The year should end on a good note, and the New Year, begin on an even better one!
And so, while I have tried in every way I know of to avoid bringing it up, I have to deal with the attacks in Paris. I want to offer anything I can, however meager, to discover something positive or at least meaningful out of such a horrendous event.
At the outset, I would say that that, in itself, might be something—maybe a good place to start—that one of our first reactions could be to adopt the belief that there must be something good to come from something like this. For me, if nothing else, it confirms some of the doctrines of my religious beliefs, reminding me in the harshest of terms that human beings are flawed by “sin” and that some people are so deeply infected by evil, the rest of us can scarcely recognize them as “human” at all.
As this latest tragedy unfolded, I felt the same feelings I had on that other horrendous day, September 11, 2001. As awful as that was, what bothered me most at the time was the realization that life would never be the same, and that my then ten year old son would have to grow up in a time darkened by a new, grotesque incarnation of pure evil.
With the attack in Paris that feeling is back, only this time it is more in relation to the children of some friends who live nearby. Our neighbors have four wonderful young children between the ages of two and eight, and seeing them nearly every day reminds me of how, fourteen years ago, our collective feeling of security was shocked and some level of innocence was stolen from our children. It angers and saddens me at the same time.
So what good might come from this? Perhaps we will appreciate those closest to us more. Perhaps we will see our nation once again as the last, best hope for civilization. Perhaps we’ll develop the wisdom to measure actions more than words. Perhaps it will strengthen our character so we will recognize the evil in this world and call it so, and then have the courage to deal with it as we should, so that our children won’t have to.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Matt 7:15-20 (KJV)
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