sad States of affairs
Like most humans my day has been one of listening -- to students, to peers, to the radio, to my own thoughts. The stories that stuck me were all from the Middle East. Explosions in Afghanistan and Beirut.
The rumble of far away,foreign, only-imagined explosions has become so constant it is almost white noise. An expectation of the news, not a novelty. But, like the view out your favorite window, even though most times you look without seeing, every now and again your are seized by the beauty in that snapshot of the world.
Today's bombings gave me pause. There were no unusual body counts, no unusual motives, and the U.S is hardly an unusual target. But the blasts rang in my ears. I guess I think something might have changed in Afghanistan some little tick of the scales away from equilibrium towards 'the worse'.
Like most of us, I wish for many things daily: more sleep, more time, more love. But I would eagerly give up those extras for a profound and lasting change in parts of the world repeatedly cleaved by violence.
It is not the annihilation of infrastructure. It is not even the bursting of individual lives. It is the repeated disrespect and destruction of humanity. How can we even remember what it feels like to be safe with these booms all around us? How can we teach children what safety is and peace if we are always at war? This is a cycle that gets bigger, not smaller, the longer it runs. We will only breed generations that make more war if we cannot end these.
Tomorrow I think I will wish for more peace.
