Today's MOZEN: Deep Thinking

F LoBuono

It's no secret, I'm a deep thinker. I was going to say BIG, but that would not be entirely accurate. I don't have huge goals for myself. My needs are simple as are my wants. But, I give enormous amounts of time to thinking about the so-called Ways of the World, i.e. how things happen and, more importantly why. And, I go deep within myself in an attempt to fathom the answers.

There are those who find those answers within a religious context. They rely on organized scripture and a designated set of rules to provide comfort and solace with events they can't explain or understand. In other words, they rely on their faith to solve mysteries they are otherwise incapable of understanding. I have tried that and it simply does not work for me - it's just too convenient to attribute complex happenings in our lives to unseen and incomprehensible forces.

And, that does not mean that if we continue to search we will find the answers - some questions are indeed unanswerable. But, that's OK if you come to a place of peace known as acceptance. Things are simply because life designates them to be.

Still, I search, often to the point where I have to stop before I am consumed by that search. I have to work hard at learning to accept. And, it's difficult for me to do so without exhausting all possibilities of finding out why first.

Most of my queries involve human nature: why do human beings behave in the ways that we do? And, of all those behaviors, the one that vexes me most is: how and why can we be so sublimely compassionate, merciful, and kind while at the same time be wantonly cruel, callous, and hateful? One just need open any Facebook thread to see exactly what I mean. At the top of the page may be a post of someone who went to great lengths to save an abused, suffering animal while at the bottom is the story about the person who perpetrated that heinous abuse in the first place!

It's enough to drive me crazy! And, no, I don't have that answer - yet.

However, what I am sure of is, for me, the only way to counter evil in the world is with love. Every time that we see an evil act committed we must counter it with a selfless act of kindness. And, it doesn't have to be direct. Often, the evil has already been committed and it may be too late to effect that particular situation. But, that doesn't mean that NOTHING can be done. Remember the Law of Karma. What good we put back into the Wheel of Life is not just local, it is universal. So, when we encounter cruelty, stop it on the spot if you can. If that is not possible, at some point, counter it with a selfless act of kindness, anywhere and at anytime.

Now, if I can just remember that the next time I want to choke the shit out of the next person who cuts me off on the West Side Highway.

That is all . . .