tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post3828801024385521739..comments2024-03-14T02:24:22.876-07:00Comments on Essay Daily: Talk About the Essay: Dec 15, 2/2, David Griffith on Thomas Merton: "Letter to an Innocent Bystander": Meditation on the Possibility of Learning from the Newtown TragedyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post-10549861712426968322012-12-15T12:12:53.431-08:002012-12-15T12:12:53.431-08:00I admire the difficult question you end with, Davi...I admire the difficult question you end with, David Griffith. It demands that we honor the various ways we process and mourn these deaths--in anger and empathy, grief and provocation. Certainly such senseless events bring out the best and worst in us. May we use the intensity of this happening to recognize collective tendencies to cast blame outward and away from us as if it will ease suffering.<br /><br />I haven't read this collection of Merton's so I'm grateful for the reference. Thank you.<br /><br />Re your final question, I turn to Merton's "Pure Love" from New Seeds of Contemplation, in which he says there are three possible beginnings, the third of which is to contemplate a love so pure it infuses "an atmosphere of dark, breathless clarity in which God, though completely defeating and baffling all your natural understanding, becomes somehow obvious." Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00899098268420558609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post-85372569857724297052012-12-15T10:43:01.489-08:002012-12-15T10:43:01.489-08:00One aspect of pointing out the naked king is to ob...One aspect of pointing out the naked king is to observe that the President/Commander-in-Chief who so eloquently and tearfully expressed the feelings of the nation at the American school shooting is also the single person by whose orders more children have been killed with weapons than any other person alive. Where are the tears for those thousands of victims?Bill Samuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00752443575410023776noreply@blogger.com