When I sat down to write my blog last night, nothing really came to me. There were a few disjointed ideas and I finally gave up. Honestly, given the events yesterday around the world, it was hard to feel the hope that this season brings. It’s hard to feel festive when you’ve heard the news of the assignation in Turkey and the attack in Berlin. Hard to get that festive spirit back after waiting for the “Checked in Safe” Facebook status of a friend in Berlin.
These events seem even more awful during the holidays. I’ve always felt there a bit of unwritten rule that you don’t do things like this during religious holiday times but with all the different religions and celebrations that would probably mean the whole year was off-limits, which isn’t bad unless your plan is to carry out some sort of attack.
I often think as we’ve “progressed” as a society – working so hard to accept everyone and everything, we’ve actually become less accepting. Growing up it seemed if someone wasn’t Christian for example, you might have asked if they celebrate Christmas and when they said no, you said ok and moved on. Didn’t dwell on the differences. Just let it go. It really didn’t matter. We didn’t label people with so many tags. You accepted people as they were. Sure, someone might be different than you, but that’s who they were. Not such a big deal.
I know that sounds a bit naïve and I feel we’ve obviously made progress overall yet we’ve still managed to alienate people. People who then feeling no hope or other way to express themselves end up in the middle of yet another shooting or other violent event here or abroad. I know there are regions of the world where fighting has existed forever. The horrors in those regions exist every day. The violence in so many places is overwhelming.
So this morning I pick the Christmas song “Welcome to Our World” and take the line “Bring your peace into our violence” as a prayer for us all.
spooningwithsmokey 