One violent nineteen year old boy has, it seems, pretty much shut down our fine city of Boston. Not to mention the terrible damage he and others wrought Monday on innocent lives near the Marathon finish line. Now four young people are dead and scores injured! Why? Will we ever really know? Of course everyone is working together to get to the bottom of this, and prevent similar possible future crimes. Let’s together strive to get to root causes and origins of our violent society and era, and genuinely do something about it.
I’m praying, meditating, counseling people, and holding the victims in my heart– as our city and surrounding suburban townsarein lockdown; forcing us to hide in our homes and stay off the streets, while the suspect(s) are intensely pursued. This lockdown is something I have never experienced in this lifetime, even in the Indo-Pakistan War—with blackouts every night– or when I lived in India under Indira Gandhi’s national State of Emergency.
What can be learned from this moment? I believe this troubled time calls on us to open our minds and hearts to the innumerable connections we share with others—in our families, communities, social systems, and on our planet—and strive to understand what it means to be human now, and why it’s imperative that we concern ourselves with the well-being of all others.
The Power of One is inconceivable; let’sharness this power by empowering ourselves and each other to assume the high road of altruism, peacemaking, collaboration and lovingkindness in action. Is there another, better, way?
