When Sparrows Fall
Recent events have brought heartbreaking, sickening headlines to the news. While it is not particularly my job to write about national world news outside of the agricultural sphere, I know that violent acts from cathedral to classroom to college campus to Kathmandu have left everyone I’ve spoken to about them horrified, numb and shocked. The anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks has added another layer of sobering memories to current events.
My parents instilled in me the imperative of caring for other living creatures. Birds’ nests were not to be disturbed. Wildflowers were not all there to be picked; some must be left to go to seed. Hurt birds and rabbits, chilled calves and kittens were to be cared for with compassion.
It is impossible to fathom how anyone could intentionally take the life of another person. This is too horrible to grasp, and I find it very, very difficult to view with compassion. I do not react as to a bird with a hurt wing. This feels like dealing with a rabid skunk or a rattlesnake.
“There are sick people in the world, but they are to be pitied. And those of us who are able to love must return the sickness with healing,” wrote Madeleine L’Engle, one of my favorite authors.
We feel a need to respond when something terrible happens. To do something. But what? How do we bring love and healing to a world full of violence, tragedy and chaos?
The senseless ending of human lives brings only questions, confusion, anger, grief. There are no pat answers to the awful “Why?” when the order of life as we know it is overthrown.
We want answers. We want reasons. We want a story that makes sense to us. We want “good guys” and “bad guys” and someone to blame. It’s a natural human response. But sometimes the attempts to respond to and “make sense” of tragedies only seem to make matters worse. Too often, contempt, divisiveness, disdain and condemnation get the upper hand. In the face of all of this, it’s tempting to grab the cliché “don’t fight fire with fire.”
But sometimes, in very literal terms, fire is fought with fire. A backfire has a purpose. It is not the same as a raging wildfire, yet it can become equally destructive if not done in the right way, under the right conditions, and by the right people.
“Like it or not, we either add to the darkness of indifference and out-and-out evil which surrounds us or we light a candle to see by,” Madeleine L’Engle wrote.
This is a great challenge. We must not, by silence or inaction or indifference, give assent to abuse of power. We must speak up. Stand up. Show up. Defend the defenseless. Bring light to darkness. We must not, by our responses, inadvertently glorify perpetrators of violence or add to the madness. We cannot combat fear and hatred with more fear and hatred.
It takes courage, discernment and vulnerability to bring healing and peace to a troubled, often terrible world. It may seem impossible that small acts of compassion, done with love, could make any difference whatsoever. But I believe firmly that it is worth the effort.