For Sunday October 8th, 2017

Hello everyone, I'd like to turn this evenings meditation over to Stanley Peele, a good friend and exceptional mentor to me. He writes:

OUR REACTION TO THE MASSACRE IN LAS VEGAS

What should we do in response to the massacre in Las Vegas?

We can have increased security in hotels and other buildings.  That may help, but a determined killer will not be deterred.

We can put fences around our property.  However, we cannot fence the world.

We can hire more police.  We can arm ourselves.  That is what we have been doing.

We can increase the use of electronic devices to detect the presence of weapons.

We can tighten the regulations about the sale of weapons and the kinds of weapons that are legal.  However, it is unlikely that our government will take any meaningful steps in that area.

All of these are natural responses.  However, they have not worked.  Violence has not been stemmed, and the magnitude, the inhumanity of the violence is increasing. 

There is another way.  All the responses to violence listed above are directed outwards, to other people.   We should also look inward – at ourselves.  What is our response to mass killings?  Fear?  Anger?  Blaming others?  Blaming the hotel?  Blaming the police?

All of these things miss the point.  Since the beginning of civilization, we have been missing the point.   The point is, we should react with inner kindness as well as outer protection.  When Cain murdered Abel, that act could have taught the survivors that killing was not the path to travel on.

The failure to learn this lesson has been repeated billions of times through the pages of history.

We have to protect ourselves, yet to do this without inner reflection is fruitless.

Let's respond to the Las Vegas massacre by increasing our kindness to others.  There is no better way for us to honor the 69 people who were killed and those who were injured there. 

Let's be more aware of the needs of others around us.  We can try to follow the boy scout law, a part of which is to be "trustworthy, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind and cheerful." 

Remember the "random acts of kindness" movement of a few years back?  Let's harken unto that.

Make today about someone else! 

Specifically, let's do at least two acts of kindness every day for 30 days.  If we do that, perhaps it will become habitual.  Then, if enough people do it we can glimpse the Garden of Eden.

Stanley Peele

Oct. 7, '17

Thank you Stanley and thank you all,

Richard