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Compassion on Earth
A Post by Monkey Plierson December 26, 2012
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Asperger's / Autism ToolboxH EO M Compassion on EarthA Post by Monkey Plierson December 26, 2012 View Blog Listings |
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Ever since the December 14, 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the internet has been flooded with news reports, press releases, opinion pieces, blog posts, and social network commentary of all sorts. Until now, I've had little to say publicly and have made no blog posting concerning the matter. I'm not the only one. What needed to be said immediately was said by others, probably much better than I could have said it. The rest was something of a mess, and I saw no need to risk becoming caught up in a shouting match amongst people with differing viewpoints. It seemed far better to wait until I could think beyond everyone's initial reactions, including my own, and consider my response more closely, before putting more words out into the world about all this. There's no time of year when such an event wouldn't have been equally tragic. But what strikes me as I write this is that it occurred during a time of year associated with peace, hope, merriment, and good will. The theme of hope for peace is so prevalent, and yet peace itself seems so elusive for so many, so much of the time. Throughout the generations, people have dreamed of and prayed for peace: world peace, interpersonal peace, inner peace. Yet it seems so rare for anyone to claim they've actually achieved it. It so often looks like such an impossible goal, except to those who envision a time when their particular religion shall prevail over all the earth - which isn't necessarily a comfort to those outside a given religion whenever its believers are espousing their views. Realistically speaking, we appear destined for trouble. But if we can't get it together on peace, what can we do? It seems to me that compassion is the only way. Now, that's something people really can, and do, have, right now. And anyone who wants it can have it, even in the midst of strife and pain. We can't demand it of others, but we can foster it within ourselves and give it to others. When it comes to compassion, the having is in the giving. That's not at all to say it isn't ever hard to locate when we're deep in the midst of our struggles. But the world is full of people who can truthfully report having experienced it. It's real. It's present. And it has the potential to lead to the peace we all seek, though we can also find it within ourselves at times when peace seems most absent or woefully distant. Like peace, compassion can be for everyone; though, like peace, some will only want it for a small and specific few. Unlike peace, no one can be deprived of your sense of compassion simply because they don't want the person you feel it towards to receive it. They may be able to stand in the way of your actions, and that's a matter you may have to deal with under certain circumstances. But nobody can make you stop having that compassion. So the question is a personal one: For whom do you have compassion? For a mother who believed in her son's future, who had no idea of the choices he would one day make, and who did her best for him, not knowing she would become his first victim? For twenty children who couldn't possibly have been the source of a young man's anguish and for the six adults who taught and cared for them, murdered without having even the slightest chance to understand why, as well as the two adults who survived, only to then have to try to cope with their trauma and all the rest of the aftermath? For the grieving families and friends of the lost and a community scarred by actions that can never be undone or forgotten? For a twenty-year-old so riddled with pain, rage, and confusion that he was corrupted enough by it to coldly calculate and carry out the horrific executions of such small, fragile, innocent people, so unable to harm him, present only with the expectation of learning on that day, and those who were there because they were responsible for them, in addition to the primary source of his own care for most of his life: his own mother? For another mother who, whatever her flaws may be, also has her own fears and has not found the peace and support she's sought? For the many who were made afraid because of this other mother's broadcasted assertion of certainty that her own son, who is all of thirteen years old and hasn't killed anyone, will one day grow up to commit an equally heinous act of premeditated violence? For her son, whose identity has been found out and who has, as a result, been caused further suffering, in addition to whatever else has already been troubling him? For other parents of struggling children, whose job of child rearing has just been made harder by the additional prejudice and mistrust their kids will face, and who may now believe they have good reason to fear for their own children's safety? For those kids, so many of whom have likely been bullied far too much already? For all of us, who are at a loss as to how to explain the kind of stunningly aggressive destruction that has taken place, and who now have to try to balance rational solutions and practical caution in an attempt to prevent future incidents against fairness and kindness towards those who are not responsible but who are easy to blame, tempting as it is to fall deep into fear, suspicion, and loss of reason? I can't presume to tell others how to feel. For my part, I have to say I've felt shock, sadness, anger, distress, frustration, despair, and compassion at different times, depending on what my thinking's been like in any given moment. That's the most honest thing I can tell you. But I can also honestly say that, when I've felt compassion, it's been for all those I've listed above, though not for all of them right away, let alone always for all of them at once. That's taken me a while. I also suspect it'll come and go over time. I'm only human. But I still have hope, even if it seems difficult to imagine peace appearing on the horizon anytime soon. If nothing else, let there at least be compassion. And let it continue with me.
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