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But if we take a good look behind the greenery, and peer into the dense brush, what we’ll see is the savage nature, the rule of survival of the fittest. Humankind is part of that brutal nature.
Despite the cheery veneer, the world is in turmoil even on the most pleasant days. While we work and play in suburbia, people are killed in Syria and other places ruled by tyrants. Those who survive atrocities will have their guard up, even though they are caring individuals who wanted freedom, they are changed. They became tuned into their basic instincts for survival.
Even the darkest of hearts can love.
Now some will say, “that’s a grim outlook on life” and I will respond to you that my outlook is based on reality. It’s the truth, and for every good moment, there is another equally brutal one.
Today Catholics all over the world celebrate Good Friday, the day Jesus was nailed to the cross. Some of the men who betrayed him had once been his followers. Fear for their lives allowed them to falter in their love. We are human, that’s what we do, get defensive when we are scared and unsure of the things going on around us.
So friends, while many authors write about the trials we face, often with the hero overcoming the odds, that’s exactly what they are unrealistic probabilities. A fanciful wish that isn’t in sync with reality. That may be why we have relied on stories like Aesop fables and the Grimm nursery rhymes, to show the brutal realities of life to our children. They have been useful to balance out the happily ever after.
I write darker scenes, subtle evil based in reality, but show how good people do bad things and sometimes, there is no happily ever after like we’ve been groomed to expect. There is always something else waiting for us to respond to, just around the corner.
Only if you see life as the good and bad, the gentle and the brutal evil, can we really say to ourselves, “I see and know the truth.”
Christians are celebrating Holy Week, others are celebrating Passover, all these traditional religious holidays are wrapped around both sides, the good and evil of the world. The holy texts tell us of the root of evil, our own instincts to survive, and ask that we rise above, but many cannot pass above the survival instinct. Evil exists, and no matter how often we try to spread our love philosophies, it is present and destined to remain because it’s baked into our DNA.
My message is to stay aware, don’t fool yourself, and enjoy the happiness you have in your life with vigor because it could all be gone in a second. <snap fingers>
Live like it’s your last breath because it could be.
Keep reading – Keep writing!
Paying tribute to some who have already left us in 2017
