“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” — Coretta Scott King.
Out my RV window -- Photo by Pat Bean
*Travels With Maggie
On this day two weeks ago, as I drank my morning cream-laced coffee while watching Zion National Park come to life outside my RV window, I read the New York Times headline announcing to the world that Osama bin Laden was dead.
It was news Americans had been waiting to hear for over 10 years. I rejoiced, as did most of my fellow countrymen and women. And then I was ashamed of myself. While I was still glad bin Laden was dead, I did not like the fact that I could celebrate his execution.
It just did not seem right, even though he and his followers celebrated the deaths of Americans on that tragic 9/11 day when al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for killing nearly 3,000 people.
Sadly the world has not been the same since
I have no heartache about the death of any murderer who hates and kills. My heartache is for the people on this planet who can not accept other people who are different from them.
Members of my own family call me idealistic because I dream of a world in which there are no borders and where everyone gets along regardless of their country of origin, color, beliefs or lifestyle.
The mixture of joy and sadness over bin Laden’s death colored my day here in Zion in a way that I find hard to explain. Everything seemed a bit shadowed, and at the same time brighter.
A sage lizzard showing off for the ladies. -- Photo by Pat Bean
I watched a sage lizard pump itself up and down on a rock in its attempt to attract a mate so together they could make babies.
Maggie and I walked beside the Virgin River on the Parus Trail, the one trail in the park where dogs are allowed. The river was flowing fast and muddy, continuing to etch its path upon the landscape as rivers have been doing for eons.
Delicate flowers pushed their way up through the earth as they do in Zion and elsewhere every spring.
Everything told me that life goes on renewing itself each day, each season, each year.
It’s sad that hate also seems to renew itself . How can we stop it? I ask this question a lot, but find no answers.
*Day 14 of my journey, May 2, 2011
I have no answers either. I know it is hard to improve on the Coretta King quotation. AL
The paradox is that without the yin and the yang, there is no creativity It takes both, the positive and negative, to make the universe.
Then there is also this: Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself – Tao Te Ching
I wonder how many people had mixed feelings. People are appalled by images of muslim parades burning flags and efigies cheering deaths. Yet TV news broadcast cheering crowds and groups celebrating another death.
I wonder sometimes, what is happening.
Look at a picture of the world from space, and realise how small a space we have to exist together.
Jim
I’m not so sure I feel any safer, who knows what has transpired in ten years. I suppose there will always be people at war, they have been since the beginning of mankind. Zion is such an awesome peaceful place to be, glad you are enjoying it.
You said, “I have no heartache about the death of any murderer who hates and kills. My heartache is for the people on this planet who can not accept other people who are different from them.
Members of my own family call me idealistic because I dream of a world in which there are no borders and where everyone gets along regardless of their country of origin, color, beliefs or lifestyle.”
Yeah…that’s exactly what I thought when I heard, and how I feel about the future. If there isn’t eventually a world- nay, a universe- where there are no borders and shallow, inconsequential things like appearance and language don’t matter, there eventually won’t be a world. Here’s crossing our fingers and hoping.
This is a beautiful post, Pat.