I've spent the last few weeks reading deeply in Jesuit traditions, working my way to find a way to make sense of the senseless, and working to use what I know to make sense of the books that I read. Patrick sent me a package of gifts: a candle, new frog paraphernalia, and little trinkets to put a smile on my face as I hold my home as I do. I put them with the my plants, looking to them a few times a day wondering if Grogu will bring us closer to good, the light, and the heartbeat of the Star Wars enterprise. May the force be with us. It's quite easy to be brought to the dark side.
While walking yesterday, I kept thinking about the chagrin of Luke Skywalker and how Anakin resisted the force and sought redemption of darkness, even being brought training to the good energy. You can't win them all and that is the tragedy of mentoring, teaching, and guiding young Jedis. Phew. It's a burden to carry, and an age-ol' story. There is good and there is evil. Evil is extremely tempting. It goes hand in hand with power. Slytherins, like Orcs, are wrapped in such debate.
Even so, I've always been attracted to those that advance humanity, a sustainable planet, kindness, empathy, and joy. I've lived enough life to realize how alluring the opposite is...perhaps it is easier. It's definitely an uglier, more toxic path.
I guess the hardest part for us in 2025 is trying to understand the uglier side of humanity - the desire to crave hardship, cruelty, bitterness, vengeance, and hate. Perhaps it's just human. Perhaps it is just nature.
Meanwhile, I can't help but look towards sunrises and sunsets, moon cycles, the ways a chrysalis blooms to beautiful life. I think there's a better answer. A more beautiful way of being. An easier way.
I don't know. I'm looking for those who choose love. I'm looking for those who choose equity, diversity, inclusivity, and possibility. I'm disappointed in those who see the opposite. I can't wrap my head around it, probably because I've spent my life in education. A classroom teacher must do their best to squash the ugly for the benefit for the majority in their spaces. Even so, there are those that embrace the ugly for the benefit of ???. That I don't understand.
As long as I have life I will question, I will read, and I will seek answers for the unexplainable. Perhaps evil, spelled backwards, is simply the essence to live. Survival of the fittest. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Perhaps an end of humanity is the triumph of nature, that will far surpass any of our time on Earth. In the meantime, we'll have hubris, lies, ugliness, and cruelty. Maybe that is just how some people are designed to be.
I love / to believe / in hope. That is not a religious statement. It's simply a testament to trying to life a good life, by helping others to do the same.
