Look Outward, Angel

For some reason, I find it necessary to give this fairly recent Quote of the Day a re-airing:

Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than any one. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn’t it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill—he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine vindictiveness–Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Now is not the time to focus on imagined slights, to take rational and kind advice and imagine contempt hidden within, nor to flail about hoping that impugning and destroying others will lead to one’s own uplifiting, beatification, and deification, when it’s more likely to convince others that you’re in serious need of help.  I’m pleased to see that message getting through on many different channels at last.

Now is the time to turn your attention to the suffering of others, admit the situation, admit the mistakes, and begin to fix things.  Individually, and collectively.

Along the way, if you’re so inclined, you might “kill people and break things,” or at least, pray.

What a sad day for the country.  My thoughts and prayers are with the US and Allied military and their support systems  in Afghanistan, with those stranded, neck-deep, and begging for help in the rivers of raw sewage that this mess has created, with the mothers whose babies have bled to death in the razor-wire fences surrounding the Kabul airport when they attempted to throw their babies over the fence to Allied troops on the other side, and with the Afghanis who are being left behind.  God help them all.  Because it seems that Joe Biden won’t.

PS: And with the families and loved ones of the ten US Marines. two Army soldiers, and one Navy corpsman who have just been confirmed killed in the recent suicide bombing just outside the airport.  Yes.  They–who gave themselves unselfishly and without expectation of adulation–will guard the streets of heaven.

The late Mr. Right and I attended a live performance of “The President’s Own” when they performed in Washington PA, several years ago.  An indelible memory.