Bearers of Good Will

"The pendulum of the mind swings between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong."
             -Carl Jung

In the last couple of days, had I deposited a nickel in some jar every time I heard someone talk about "right and wrong" or "good and bad" in the context of Osama Bin Laden's death and capture, I would very well be on my way to owning that Lamborghini I have been wanting! I am terrified by the callousness and insensitivity that is driving the celebration of the loss of a man's life--Osama or not!

I was inspired to capture this in the blog because it doesn't even appear that people are celebrating for the right reasons, if such a thing exists in this realm. Folks are running around in the streets not because of the potential and opportunity for peace and unification that this instance has provided, but because a "bad" man is dead. I cringe at the thought because as I watch American news anchors describe the terror that Osama instilled and the lifelessness he left in his path, I think about the turmoil, pain, violence, and havoc we leave in our paths everyday, especially as a nation masquerading as bearers of good will in places like Libya, Yemen, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, to name a few. We have very short attention spans and soon forget that America and Americans are often perceived as evil tyrants in many nations across the globe-we are the "BAD" man.

So as I watch people celebrate death and killings, and hear young children barely old enough to spell their names correctly, chant in laughter and glee because another man's life is lost, I writhe in my own skin and fear that we are fostering hatred--mini tyrants who may one day, shun difference or become intolerant pushers of bigotry and prejudice. We celebrate in the name of good/bad and right/wrong, and yet, disregard the fact that these dualities are often entirely based on perception and the lenses through which we observe the world--they are on opposite ends of the same spectrum. What makes sense to one may be nonsense to another, and yet, to call one thing right and the other wrong, may be arbitrary and rooted in some kind of false sense of being.