Clearly we are missing something. From one mass shooting to the next, clearly nothing is happening. Nothing is sinking in. And I think what’s not sinking in, is pain.
If we don’t deeply feel the suffering; if it doesn’t break us open; we are left in body bags and standing at grave sites and sitting in pews with our kevlar vests and our praying hands and neither works without taking the pain back into the world with a more profound understanding.
Get out of your mind with the loss of it, and if you did that, if you really did that, you would not be arming yourself for the next onslaught, but preparing for it by caring more deeply for the world.
We don’t need to be better defended. That’s a primitive response to pain and it’s horrifying to watch a nation retreat into such childish ways. We need to stop protecting ourselves and feel the fucking pain, so we can wake up and take better care of the world; why else have laws?
Suffer well, and you are the ones who will go forward and care for the world. Suffer fools, and you’ll cause the world to suffer more.
Starting Close 