MAKE LIFE BETTER?

When we see all the trauma and tragedy in the world, local and far away, a natural reaction is to want to make things better, and to despair when life doesn't get better and more tragedy follows.  Why bother to help create a better world if it is just going to get knocked down again whether by natural forces or by human decisions and actions? 

I do not intend to explain or justify bad or tragic and traumatic events, but I can point out that in the midst of them, we see heroic acts of love and care for the other.  We seem to be able to loose ourselves in our reaching out to others, and in doing that we find deep satisfaction of being ourselves.  These times of giving to the other are holy.  As we remember more casual times, and times of smooth sailing, we can see that we tend to focus on what we want, and we experience more disappointment and anger, sometimes even when we get what we want.

IS THE POINT OF OUR LIFE FOR OUR OWN SATISFACTION OR FOR GIVING TO OTHERS?

WHO IS TO BLAME?

Corporate, group and social culpability has been part of the social discussion for centuries.  Along with that goes corporate, group and social pride.  We have little trouble accepting the pride as a family or nation when someone succeeds in extreme fashion in sports, finance or scholarship.  We give accolades to the individual for sure, but we also give accolades to the team, the family, the opportunities the individual have had.  Even the person who has come from a bad or negative environment we honor their success because of what they took advantage of in the society.  This is all appropriate and healthy.

What is equally good and healthy is to accept the blame and guilt along with the individual who, goes off what we call the deep end, and is destructive to themselves and others.  Each of us lives in the world in relationship to one another and to the groups and social structures which are around us, and we are culpable along with the individual.  When the “bad” happens we need to look at our social selves and see what we need to adjust.  That is healthy.  Looking for blame someplace else or holding the individual solely to blame is unhealthy.  Being human, whether individual or corporate, we need regular adjustments of our attitudes and behaviors so that we can be at our best.  Do not be afraid to be part of the problem, because then you can be part of the solution.

Being part of the solution means that we have to talk and listen to one another with honesty and care.  To be effective and to affect one another we need the conversation to be without angry expressions and without hate and without ill will and without being convinced that "I" am right at the beginning of the conversation.  We must be open to being affected by the other as we are hopeful to affect them.  This kind of conversation fosters a free society and supports free speech and a democratic/representational government.