"...and a healthy dose of 'Mind My Own Business'."
Well, the irony of the past few days, my thoughts and corresponding posts about mercy, the incident with the drunk kid beating up his mother and my reaction to it, all taken together makes me want to throw up my hands and cover up my head.
The deal is that I do believe in mercy, not just as a philosophical, 'feel good', hope for the world way, but very literally. I believe that changed lives and hearts, instigated by compassion, motivated by mercy is a very real and tangible thing.
And my disdain for the drunks of the world isn't so much represented by anger as by the sick feeling I get down inside when I think of the needless harm and damage they inflict on those who care about them the most. More specifically, the sick feeling I get when I think of my best friend in high school who spent one semester at college and hasn't been sober since. Other stories, some too close to home and some that unfold every single night in almost every city in America.
If I let my mind dwell on these things and wander into them too far, my sick feeling turns to depression and hopelessness. Without the mercy I've been talking about and the hope for a better world that it singularly represents, the world is an incredibly dark and depressing place. Sometimes I think it's a place I'd just as soon not live in.
So, obviously, the answer for me is not to dwell or think too much about such things. Other people think what they think, and do what they do. But my mission is to think of things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and worthy of praise. The rest is nothing more than distracting noise in a world filled with music.
Mercy, compassion, forgiveness and transformation are available to any human being that will embrace them and walk in them. Without exception, without qualification and without prejudice. Period.
As to the kid who beat up his mother, or the mom who facilitates such events, these things are really none of my business. This is not my laundry, and this dirt is not my dirt. I see no reason at all to allow it to ruin my day. I have no interest in judging either of them, or anybody else for their decisions, actions or lifestyles. I'm not going to live inside of that paradigm, or permit it within my arm's length. And there's a period at the end of that sentence too.
So I'm ready to come up from the deep water for a bit, grab some fresh air and think about something fun and happy. There's a lot going on toward the end of this month, and it's all good, positive stuff. I'm ready to turn my attention in that direction.