Heart in hand

Heavy-hearted tonight for the mass killings in Paris. There is darkness in the City of Light and the world is weeping. Praying, hurting, wondering, and just maybe -- barely -- hoping.

My heart is heavy for many reasons. Of course, first for the human beings who were senselessly killed and for their families and communities. There is nothing that can be said about that that is not already being said and felt around the world. But my heart is also heavy because of the hatred that caused this and the hatred that rises up in its wake. For the continuation of anti-Muslim sentiment perpetuated by events like this. For the cutting and poisonous words and thoughts that will be born in response to this.

And there is another layer, which I hesitate even to mention in case it sounds like I'm trying to minimize the pain and severity of this night. But I am also heavy-hearted because a European or American killing of a hundred people catches millions of eyes and hearts and motivates change...while millions are still slaughtered in the ongoing Congolese genocide, for example. Violence and systematic oppression occurs daily around the world, and too often, those who are most dramatically affected are also dramatically underrepresented in the public eye. My heart weeps for the African people who the world has forgotten, even chosen to ignore.

Tonight my heart is too heavy to carry on life as if normal, and for that, I am actually glad. I need to be genuinely affected by the suffering of others, beyond just that initial moment of shock and perhaps a twinge of sorrow. I need to be plagued by the sense of wrongness and injustice and the need to speak out in word and action. It has been said, "The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe." (Joanna Macy)

I have to believe the words of the Harry Potter Alliance, especially on nights like tonight. The weapon we have is love. I have to believe we can move forward in love, joy, fearlessness, reconciliation, and a spirit of ubuntu ("My humanity is bound up in yours"). Because I am beginning to believe that it is the only way. Without these things we will lose our humanity -- have lost our humanity countless times before throughout human history. We as human beings must allow tragedies like this -- and the innumerable past examples -- to move us forward in love. To hold on to one another. It is the only way to salvage a broken, hurting world.

May it be so.