The news is filled with options: send him back; cremate the remains and scatter the ashes in an unknown location; force his people to take care of their mistake; make the mosques pay: tax the funeral home for extra security re-routed from public duty; throw him into a paupers' unmarked grave--no coffin, no rites or rituals, just a body bag in the dirt...it goes on.
Human beings show as many reactions to catastrophe as there are individual cells in a body. Cowards lash out, backing their frustrations with bombs. Children have access to guns, bringing them to school or playgrounds. Cars explode. Doorlocks jam. Bishops drive drunk. Children are forced into slavery; are tortured; are eaten. Women are mutilated through surgery or for a man's "honor" or to curb physical pleasure in their lives. Buildings crack and fall on trapped workers, or collapse and implode; bursting into towers of flame. The sea rocks onshore. Wild winds whip the landscape. The ground erupts, hurling molten rock or opens,swallowing everything. Even stars fall from the skies. Such is the history of this planet. Such is the history of its people.
This is the point,then: WE ARE ITS PEOPLE.
From the edges of every horrific event--from individual terror to entire genocides--there have emerged the heroes. The survivors. The beautific few crawling from the cauldron of evil to tell the story of "How To Make It Out Alive". How to learn to heal. How to learn to forgive. How to learn to change ourselves so WE become better people. (Better at controlling our anger. Better at tolerating differences. Better at loving our families. Better at watching each others' backs. Better at recognizing and reaching out to those suffering quietly, in the dark and silent places we don't want to admit exist around us.) Better at honestly seeking something Beyond Ourselves--whatever/whomever that may be--because, frankly, we need the help. All of us.
Burying the dead--be they family,friend or enemy--is, simply, a righteous act.
It is who we are.
It is who we should always be.
Human beings show as many reactions to catastrophe as there are individual cells in a body. Cowards lash out, backing their frustrations with bombs. Children have access to guns, bringing them to school or playgrounds. Cars explode. Doorlocks jam. Bishops drive drunk. Children are forced into slavery; are tortured; are eaten. Women are mutilated through surgery or for a man's "honor" or to curb physical pleasure in their lives. Buildings crack and fall on trapped workers, or collapse and implode; bursting into towers of flame. The sea rocks onshore. Wild winds whip the landscape. The ground erupts, hurling molten rock or opens,swallowing everything. Even stars fall from the skies. Such is the history of this planet. Such is the history of its people.
This is the point,then: WE ARE ITS PEOPLE.
From the edges of every horrific event--from individual terror to entire genocides--there have emerged the heroes. The survivors. The beautific few crawling from the cauldron of evil to tell the story of "How To Make It Out Alive". How to learn to heal. How to learn to forgive. How to learn to change ourselves so WE become better people. (Better at controlling our anger. Better at tolerating differences. Better at loving our families. Better at watching each others' backs. Better at recognizing and reaching out to those suffering quietly, in the dark and silent places we don't want to admit exist around us.) Better at honestly seeking something Beyond Ourselves--whatever/whomever that may be--because, frankly, we need the help. All of us.
Burying the dead--be they family,friend or enemy--is, simply, a righteous act.
It is who we are.
It is who we should always be.
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