Real Life

I admit that I am an escapist at times. I like to write to remove myself from life and watch from a distance (albeit, a short one at times). There was a shooting on Friday at the Jewish Federation. 4 women were wounded and one was killed. The assailant said that he was a muslim and he wanted the Jews out. I can't help but think that a completely ridiculous thing to say about killing another human being. Is religion more important than human life?

I am distressed by this. Who's child is that man who killed in the name of religion? He was only two years older than me. What did he learn that made him think killing was going to help anything? Who are his elders? Who are his friends? What world does he live in that I don't see?
He was from Pasco. I lived in Kennewick when I was young. What thoughts were going through his head when he pulled the trigger? I can't begin to imagine. I don't think I want to. In fact, to be honest, I know I don't want to. I don't want to think about how he got to that point. How did my lifstyle, my decisions, my patterns help him get there? And how will I help my kids come to different conclusions?

While my Judaism is a somewhat private thing, I know there are other lifestyle choices I have made that I feel are more public. I was reading a magazine recently about what is happening to the world (it's also summed up in "The Inconvenient Truth") and I started to retreat into my mind. I do that often these days. Everything seems threatened: land, water, humans, animals, future, hope...it freaks me out. I HAVE to do something about it. I'm figuring out what that is right now. I know it will have something to do with how I live my everyday life. I know it will be hard. And I will write it down and share it with others.

There's no way to make sense of what's going on the world...rather than spend (waste?) time doing it, I'd rather get to work on not being a part of the problem.