Today a madman; I don’t want to remember his name; killed 50 people in a club in Florida. The club catered to homosexual people. Were any of them personally offending this man? Did their deaths relieve him of some life burden?

I often think it is so characteristically human to try to glue handles on the Universe. What do I mean? We want to control it. If it scares or confuses us we want to change and shape it so it fits in our own back yard.

I have been having one of those give and takes with another person on Facebook where we both think we have the righteous position. We think we know what was in the mind of the Founding Fathers when they wrote the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Are Americans supposed to have “freedom”? What does that mean? Turn the crank and make the world the way it ought to be.

I have the freedom to live away from the grittier parts of the world. I don’t have to defend myself on the street with fists or weapons or even an ‘attitude face’. I grew up male and white and so some things came to me a lot more easily than they do for others. Am I guilty of foisting my worldview on others. Probably. I live in a town where a variety of forces financed by custom or my tax dollars keep people of color, people of low economic means, people with limited education at a distance.

What is my obligation as an “open-minded, compassionate person”? Should I move back into the city and share more of contemporary 21st century burdens with the more pressured populace? Most of them would prefer to live like me. It’s like eating your hamburger because people in India are starving. How does that help them. It’s the “Poor Little Rich Boy”story:

A rich kid was walking in the city with his father when he saw a beggar kid by the side of the road. The boy had no shoes. “He has no shoes,” the boy said to his father. “How does that make you feel?” asked the father. “Very lucky,” replied the boy; and quickly untying his shoes he walked over to the beggar and held them up before him. “Don’t you wish you had shoes like these?” He asked.

We are all tinged with schizophrenia. One way or another we think the Universe speaks directly to us. Physics hands us the truth of its formulas. The Bible is a message singularly designed to guide our lives. The Harvard MBA program has the Way to make us rich and successful. That lottery number has my name on it.

What have you made today? Isn’t that enough? You peeled an apple and shared it with your kid. You wished your grandmother a happy birthday. You sold a car. Even the most bedraggled junkie can make someone smile. That’s enough. And above all, think about understanding someone you though was beyond your understanding. Yes, guy holding onto your gun for dear life, I can feel in my gut how that small object of cold steel makes you feel stronger. Now, please, think about how it is dangerous that it makes me feel more afraid.