LaughingSeven

One of my professors, Roy Barsness, constantly gets on us for not reading the news. So this post is in honor of Roy….

Trailer Park in Florida heaven to sex offenders. Nearly half of the residents are registered sex offenders. Article Link

A Middle School (yes, that’s right, grades 1-6) in Maine is going to be offering birth control due to a recent outbreak of pregnancies. These pills will be available to girls at the school as young as 11 years young. Article Link

Four people, 2 kids and 2 adults, were killed in their sleep last night in Detroit. Article Link

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Too often I read headlines and stories like the ones above and say to myself “man, this world is so messed up.” While that is true, it completely alleviates the need for me to feel anything for any of these people. It’s easy to hate the sex offenders because they have done something that is so wrong and such a violation to those they offended. It’s easy to mock at the 11-year olds having sex and getting pregnant…and then to fire bullets at the school system for not doing a darn thing about real issues with these kids. And then it’s easy to see the murder of a family and feel next to nothing because this happens every day, in every state, country, and continent…so why should I feel something for this Detroit family when I can barely remember what it felt like for the family last week that suffered the same fate?

The Fall season is my favorite season of the year. You literally have to be blind to not see the beauty that surrounds us, and my guess is that even the blind can see and taste the beauty: The colors changing, the wind blowing the leaves around, and the air becoming crisper. This is the seasons to feel change, to feel beauty, and to feel pain. Because I know in a few weeks, those leaves are going to be brown, and the trees will be bare, and it’ll be time to bundle up and go inside. So today I enjoy the leaves, the air, the wind, and the smells of fall. And I feel the groans of the earth and of those who inhabit it.

We live in a beautifully glorious place that at the same time is dark, cold, and wet (not just Seattle). I’d rather it be one or the other, because seeing beauty and darkness at the same time is usually too much.