Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Science, Death, Forgiveness


"We're leaving it to the scientists," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Monday. "It could take as much as a couple of days. The scientists are still going through all of it."


Now that's a turning of the policy leaf, there, boys. Now, after you're done "leaving it to the scientists" re. NK nukes, how about "leaving it to the scientists" on:

*Global Warming?
*Intelligent Design vs. Evolution?
*Contraception/Birth Control?
*Stem Cell Research?
*The Energy Crisis/Alternative Fuels?
*Bunker Buster Bombs?
*Resource Management?

And Dubya, check this out—your friends in the pharmaceutical industry will love this one: the universe is shaped like a pill.

And while the geopolitical sabers rattle, Darfur burns.

Amidst it all, and quickly forgotten, this story that the vast majority of us will simply never understand (me included). Wherever there is the murder of children, forgiveness does not seem to have room to draw a single breath.

But these folks appear to be different. Or maybe they simply have kept alive and aware that core of truth that resides in every one of us, though perhaps caked over with the dried blood of conditioned belief and prejudice. These Amish are not saints or arhats: there is not a lama, a guru, a Master, or a self-proclaimed Enlightened Being among them. They are farmers and blacksmiths and herders and householders; Moms and Dads. Not a one of them is special for either wealth or reputation or glamor; but every single one glows with a beauty that casts a quiet shadow onto every teacher of spirituality, and wraps his voice in the silence of a stunned and mute recognition.

What I and others merely teach, these people live.

1 comment:

Bitty said...

RE: this week's quote...is it E.F. Schumacher? I read a book of his called Small is Beautiful and it sounds like something from that. (If I'm wrong and you've never read that book, btw, I highly recommend it.)